# commentaries

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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David inclined his own heart to be obedient to the word (:112), but God inclined his heart that way in response (:36). David’s meditation on the law gave him understanding (:99), but he was given understanding by God (:34). He kept his feet in the way of God’s word (:101), but God made him walk in that path (:35). As noted on <a href='B:230 25:4-5'>Psa 25:4-5</a> the desire for guidance or being 'directed' suggests that there is a higher power available, beyond a man engaging alone with God's word and seeking to obey it in his own strength. The idea is beyond that of guidance; the same word is translated "make me to go in the path of Your commandments" (<a href='B:230 119:35'>Psa 119:35</a> AV). It is the word used for a bow being bent; the idea is of God's hand directly and forcefully acting upon a willing human mind. See on :18.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Turn my heart toward Your statutes, not toward selfish gain-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Turn my heart" continues the strong theme in this Psalm of God acting directly upon the human heart to make us inclined towards obedience to Him; see on :18. This feature of the Divine-human interaction would partly explain how the Lord Jesus had complete human nature, and yet achieved moral perfection. God's hand was in that, but that same powerfully helping hand can be in the lives and hearts of all believers. "Turn my heart" is the word for "incline", used by David of how he himself inclined his heart to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:51'>Psa 119:51</a>; <a href='B:230 119:112'>Psa 119:112</a>; <a href='B:230 119:157'>Psa 119:157</a>). But David prayed that God would incline his heart towards His word (<a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>) and away from sin (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>). This is how the Holy Spirit works to this day- we are confirmed in the psychological attitudes we ourselves choose to have. The word is used of God's mighty "stretched out" arm and "strong hand" in human affairs (<a href='B:230 136:12'>Psa 136:12</a> and often in Isaiah). This powerful hand of God is at work in human hearts, confirming us in the psychological way in which we ourselves wish to go. In this sense God turns or inclines the heart where He wishes (<a href='B:240 21:1'>Pro 21:1</a>). Solomon in the Proverbs places all the emphasis upon a person themselves in their own strength inclining their heart toward his teaching (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:5'>Pro 4:5</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>). He fails to appreciate what David his father did; that God's word is His word and not that of the human channel through which it comes. And he totally puts the emphasis upon human strength of will, self inclination towards God's word, rather than perceiving as David did that without God's psychological help in this, we shall ultimately fail. As Solomon himself did.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Worthless things" is the term for idols, and it seems idolatry was a major problem to Saul and the Israel of David's time. In the wilderness context, it was because David's heart was 'turned away' from sin, that God 'turned away' the kingdom from Saul to David (s:w. <a href='B:100 3:10'>2Sa 3:10</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Revive me in Your ways-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This idea of living in God's ways was a promised blessing for remaining in the covenant (<a href='B:50 5:33'>Deu 5:33</a>; <a href='B:50 30:16'>Deu 30:16</a>). Solomon uses the phrase for living in the way of understanding (<a href='B:240 9:6'>Pro 9:6</a>), but the difference with his father David was that David asks to be "revived" or made to live in those ways; whereas Solomon exhorts people to attempt to do this in their own strength and steel willpower. And this ultimately fails, as it did with Solomon. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Fulfill Your promise to Your servant, that You may be feared-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The specific promise in view was that he would become king and Saul's persecution would come to an end.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Take away my disgrace that I dread, for Your ordinances are good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB is better: "Save me from the insults I fear; how wonderful are your judgments!". The fear of shame was strong in David, coming from a shame based society, but it is in all of us. The concern for what others think of us is balanced here against a simple awe and wonder at God's expressed word. This is the antidote.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, I long for Your precepts!-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We may need to read in an ellipsis- David longed [to be able to keep] God's precepts. This may have been a reference to his pining to be at the sanctuary, from which he was exiled whilst on the run from Saul, and keep the feasts.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Revive me in Your righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Living new life in righteousness is the language used of the revival of repentance (<a href='B:330 18:21-22'>Eze 18:21-22</a>; <a href='B:330 18:27'>Eze 18:27</a>; <a href='B:330 33:16'>Eze 33:16</a>). Perhaps David is aware at this point of his sins, and asks for spiritual revival. This gift of spiritual life is the gift of the Holy Spirit offered in the New Testament, the difference being that the life breathed in is the life of the Lord Jesus, now glorified and able to do this to all in Him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>WAW</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your grace also come to me, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He wanted to have the spiritual experience of God's grace which he had seen experienced by others, e:g. Samuel. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your salvation, according to Your word- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The prophetic word that he would be king and therefore be saved from death at Saul's hand.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>so I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The specific individual was surely Saul. David trusted in the prophetic word that he would be king. The Psalms repeatedly use the word "reproach" about Saul's campaign against David (<a href='B:230 44:16'>Psa 44:16</a>; <a href='B:230 57:3'>Psa 57:3</a>; <a href='B:230 74:10'>Psa 74:10</a>; <a href='B:230 102:8'>Psa 102:8</a>)- it must've included much slander which is unrecorded in the historical record, but which clearly was extremely hurtful to David. The reproach was as "a sword in the bones" to David (<a href='B:230 42:10'>Psa 42:10</a>). The word of promise to us likewise includes the word of the Kingdom- and this is the answer to slander and "reproach" which alone can comfort us.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t take the word of truth out of my mouth, for I put my hope in Your ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To have a word or covenant in the mouth can mean being within the covenant pronounced in that word. David here is fearful that the "word of truth", the promises to him of kingship and salvation, could be removed. The phrase is specifically used of the promises made to David in <a href='B:100 7:28'>2Sa 7:28</a>. By :160, David is confident that the word of truth is indeed "of truth":&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>so I will obey Your law continually, forever and ever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be David's vision of the Kingdom- eternally being obedient to God's law. It's possible to interpret the strange Mosaic phrase "he who keeps the law shall even live in it" in the same way- that the life eternal will be all about obedience to God's law.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will walk in liberty, for I have sought Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a great theme of this Psalm (:32,96); that obedience to God is not a life of being shut up in a boring and constricted path of being, but rather is the way of ultimate psychological freedom. And it is this which many seek for, and yet look for it in all the wrong places.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will also speak of Your statutes before kings, and will not be disappointed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul and Achish "king of Gath", both of whom David was "before" (<a href='B:90 21:13'>1Sa 21:13</a>). He was unashamed [not "disappointed"] of God's ways, even when it would have been politically expedient to keep his mouth shut.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will delight myself in Your commandments, because I love them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's love of and "delight" in God's word is a theme of his (<a href='B:230 119:48'>Psa 119:48</a>; <a href='B:230 119:16'>Psa 119:16</a>; <a href='B:230 119:70'>Psa 119:70</a>). Our attitude to God's word determines our obedience to it; if we love God's ways, then obedience comes naturally and from the heart. If we view His ways as a set of onerous, legalistic commandments- then obedience will be so much harder. And this is seen in the poor moral life of legalists.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I reach out my hands for Your commandments which I love; I will meditate on Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :47, David didn't see God's commandments as onerous sets of legal points to be obeyed. Rather was he eager to know what God wanted, stretching out his hands for them, because he quite simply loved God and His words.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>ZAYIN</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Remember Your word to Your servant, because You give me hope-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is 'Fulfill the prophetic word that David would become King'. This was all David had to hope for and cling on to during the years of persecution by Saul.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has revived me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :49, the word in view is the Divine word through Samuel that David was to be king and Saul's persecution would one day end. It seems David fainted at times, but then revived as he remembered that word.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The arrogant mock me excessively, but I don’t swerve from Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The arrogant" referred to Saul, primarily (see :69,78). And yet Saul began humble. Power so often changes men into proud people. The link between power and pride, and God's desire that we should be humble, explains why we are often not given the power which we wish for in various ways. Saul was once "little in [his] own eyes".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I remember Your ordinances of old, Yahweh, and have comforted myself-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David took comfort from the actions and justice of God as displayed in Bible history, even though it seemed God had not yet acted in that way to him. "Of old" may mean that the ordinances had been given long ago; or that David from his youth, "of old" in his personal life, had always been devoted to the same words which now gave him comforted him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :82, the future fulfilment of the word of promise was his "comfort"; and yet here he comforts himself at the same time, at the thought of God's previous fulfillments of His promised word, even though the word had not come true for him personally yet. It's like Joseph's confidence expressed to the other prisoners that Divine dreams come true; when his own dream of glory over his brothers seemed so far from fulfilment:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Indignation has taken hold on me because of the wicked who forsake Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is again to Saul, who had once kept God's law but then forsook it. Solomon condemns those who "forsake the law" (<a href='B:240 4:2'>Pro 4:2</a>; <a href='B:240 28:4'>Pro 28:4</a>), and he likely has Saul also in view. But he speaks in <a href='B:240 4:2'>Pro 4:2</a> of those who forsook his law; as if he was playing God, considering any inattention to himself as inattention to God. David by contrast continually emphasizes the need not to forsake God's law:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Presumably a reference to David's habit of setting God's statutes to music in the time of his exile. There is an intended juxtaposition of ideas between the words "house" and "pilgrimage". Although he was constantly on the move, his loyalty to God's ways gave him a sense of permanence and stability even in that period.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have remembered Your name, Yahweh, in the night, and I obey Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We get the impression that David obeyed God's law "in the night" because he was aware of God's Name. I can only think of one specific commandment which required immediate obedience "in the night". It's in <a href='B:50 23:10'>Deu 23:10</a> "If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens to him by night, he must go outside the camp". The idea could appear to be that if a man needed to defecate, then he was to do so outside of the camp of soldiers. Having latrines outside the camp would have ensured hygiene within the "camp". But it seems that defecating is what is in view in <a href='B:50 23:12'>Deu 23:12</a>. Therefore this specifically night time reason for uncleanness must refer to an involuntary emission of semen. Hence the reference to what "happens to him at night". Nobody apart from the soldier knew what had happened. Many of the Mosaic commands invited obedience from men on a very personal and intimate level; for nobody else apart from the soldier would have known whether or not this had happened. This was all designed to inculcate very personal obedience to and relationship with God:&nbsp;See on <a href='B:230 119:56'>Psa 119:56</a>. To have soldiers needing to remain ritually unclean outside the main camp of soldiers was not perhaps seen as the most effective use of soldiers in a conflict situation, where every man was required. But they were taught thereby that victory was not going to come in their own strength, but through obedience to God's ways. We likewise are tempted to think that careful obedience to God's commands will hinder our material progress in life. But the opposite is in fact true, and this commandment taught that:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is my life’s way, keeping Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained in :55, many of the Mosaic commands invited obedience from men on a very personal and intimate level; for nobody else apart from the soldier would have known whether or not this had happened. This was all designed to inculcate very personal obedience to and relationship with God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>CHET</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is my portion; I promised to obey Your words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "portion" which David looked forward to in his time in the wilderness was the inheritance of the kingship from Saul; and he promised to have God's words obeyed under his rulership.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I sought Your favour with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David spoke of seeking and praising God's grace with his "whole heart" (<a href='B:230 9:1'>Psa 9:1</a>; <a href='B:230 119:58'>Psa 119:58</a>; <a href='B:230 138:1'>Psa 138:1</a>). Solomon uses the phrase, but speaks of being obedient with the "whole heart" (<a href='B:110 8:23'>1Ki 8:23</a>; <a href='B:140 6:14'>2Ch 6:14</a>) and applying the "whole heart" to the intellectual search for God (<a href='B:250 1:13'>Ecc 1:13</a>; <a href='B:250 8:9'>Ecc 8:9</a>). There is a difference. The idea of whole hearted devotion to God was picked up by Solomon, but instead of giving the whole heart to the praise of God's grace, he instead advocated giving the whole heart to ritualistic obedience and intellectual search for God. This has been the trap fallen into by many Protestant groups whose obsession with "truth" has obscured the wonder of God's grace.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Implying David fell into some sin during the wilderness years? There are many hints throughout Psalms 119 that he had ample experience of sin and repentance at this time- e:g. :67, and the conclusion to the whole Psalm. David considered his ways and turned his steps / ways towards obedience (<a href='B:230 119:59'>Psa 119:59</a>); Solomon takes this further, using the same phrase, but saying that God directs the ways / steps of the man who considers his ways (s:w. <a href='B:240 16:9'>Pro 16:9</a>). We have here an example of how the Spirit confirms a Godly person in the way they consciously wish to go. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will hurry, and not delay, to obey Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It shouldn’t just be the nearness of the Lord’s return that makes us urgent. Our decisions to give over each part of our lives, radically, to Jesus should be made not just because life is short and the Lord is at the door; but also because it might otherwise be too late to undo the damage a self-engrossed life has already caused, to the self and to others. Rebekah responded immediately to the call to go marry Isaac, in a story which is clearly to be read as an acted parable of the search for a bride for Jesus. Her ‘quick’ response is one of her characteristics (<a href='B:10 24:18'>Gen 24:18</a>; <a href='B:10 24:20'>Gen 24:20</a>; <a href='B:10 24:26'>Gen 24:26</a>; <a href='B:10 24:46'>Gen 24:46</a>; <a href='B:10 24:64'>Gen 24:64</a>). Abraham likewise “rose up early” after his night time vision, requiring him to offer his son to God (<a href='B:10 22:1'>Gen 22:1</a>; <a href='B:10 22:3'>Gen 22:3</a>). Joshua “therefore” started to attack the confederacy of local kings, in the middle of the night, immediately after God had assured him of victory (<a href='B:60 10:9'>Jos 10:9</a>). David could write: “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments” (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a> AV). We cannot be passive on receiving the opportunity to serve God. We will urgently seek to do something with what we have been enabled to do for the Lord: “The servant who got five bags went quickly to invest the money and earned five more bags” (<a href='B:470 25:16'>Mat 25:16</a> NCV).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God's voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A reference to unrecorded robbery whilst in the wilderness? Or an allusion to his treatment at the hands of Nabal? We wonder if he has Samson in mind, who was bound by ropes, and arose at midnight to carry away the gates of his enemies (:62). Even in the heat of crisis, David was not unaware of God's word. It was no academic study for him, in evenings when all has gone well in the day.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :61. David at this time in the wilderness had not seen God's justice ['righteousness'] done in his case, but he thanked God that God had done justice in history. This is a parade example for those who lament the apparent injustice or inconsistency of God in observed life at their time.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am a friend of all those who fear You, of those who observe Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This and other references in Psalms 119 (e:g. :74,79) to David's keen sense of fellowship with other sincere believers reflects his feelings towards Samuel, and perhaps some of the others who came and lived with him in the wilderness.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The earth is full of Your grace, Yahweh; teach me Your commands-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was likely illiterate at this time and his knowledge of God's law would've been taught by Samuel and faithful priests. Without them, he was driven to ask God to directly teach him. Whilst on the run from Saul, it would have seemed all was against him. But he looked around at the natural creation, and saw God's grace encoded into all creation, seeing the cup half full rather than half empty.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>TET</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Do good to Your servant according to Your word, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This can be read as a request for God to fulfil His word of promise to David, that he would become king and Saul's persecution would end. But AV has David praising God for having "dealt well" with him. But this was only in a spiritual sense, for David in the wilderness was apparently not given immediate justice by God and had a very difficult life.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Believing God's word and being taught by God are two different, if related things. We can "believe the Bible is true", but to be open to being taught from it can be quite another thing.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :59. David implies he had sinned before the wilderness years. He refers to his "sins of youth" elsewhere. He was not, therefore, just an innocent teenager looking after the sheep and composing Psalms in some ethereal teenage spiritual bliss. Yet being "afflicted" was what went on through David's life (s:w. <a href='B:110 2:26'>1Ki 2:26</a>; <a href='B:230 132:1'>Psa 132:1</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It was Moses who 'taught [God's] statutes' to Israel (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:1'>Deu 4:1</a>; <a href='B:50 4:5'>Deu 4:5</a>; <a href='B:50 4:14'>Deu 4:14</a>; <a href='B:50 5:31'>Deu 5:31</a>). David in the wilderness felt such a personal relationship with God that he felt God personally teaching him, without the intermediary of any teacher like Moses. And this kind of intimacy is still possible with God. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The proud have smeared a lie upon me, but with my whole heart I will keep Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The proud" refer to Saul and his men; see on :51. David presents the antidote to experiencing slander as focusing our whole heart upon God's ways. So often slander elicits a desire to respond or endlessly mull over the experience in our hearts. But instead, whole hearted devotion to God's precepts is needed.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their heart is callous and fat, but I delight in Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Slandering others means having a callous heart, "as fat as grease" (AV), very soon to destroy itself.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was driven to love God's word by the wilderness persecution- and Psalms 119 is his celebration of that.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt that the wonder of having God's word meant that the presence or absence of physical blessings&nbsp; in his life was irrelevant (<a href='B:230 119:72'>Psa 119:72</a>; <a href='B:230 119:111'>Psa 119:111</a>). So often in Psalms 119, love of God's word is balanced against the love of wealth. Perhaps David thought that a more politically astute life in Saul's court might have made him wealthy, or perhaps he was offered wealth n return for unethical support of Saul. But he was faithful to the word of promise, that he and not Saul was to be king. And this apparently meant the sacrifice of apparent wealth.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>YUD</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your hands have made me and formed me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That God has created us means we want to know Him more and form a relationship with Him. Our search for the invisible Father is what drives us to His word. Our attitudes to God's word are related to our attitudes to His creative power. For the Biblical record is of creation by God's word. If we accept that, then we will find an intuitive interest in living by that word as it forms us into a new creation.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who fear You will see me and be glad, because I have put my hope in Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :63. The "word" is the word of promise that David would be king. All those who feared Yahweh rejoiced in that hope. It seems Samuel's word about David's future kingship was well known in Israel.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, I know that Your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness You have afflicted me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David seems to have felt there were aspects of disobedience in his life before God, and he had been rightly afflicted because of them. His great expressions of love for God's word therefore don't imply that he was perfectly obedient to it. But this is how spiritual life is- loving God's ways, despite still failing.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Please let Your grace be for my comfort, according to Your word to Your servant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" in view is the promise of becoming king after Saul. But David sees this as being by grace alone. God chose him because he was "after God's own heart"; but that didn't mean David was perfect. The choice was still by grace and not according to personal righteousness:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your law is my delight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's survival of Saul's persecution, not dying but living, was a result of God's prophetic word through Samuel. But that word was grace (:76), "tender mercies".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the proud be disappointed, for they have overthrown me wrongfully; but I will meditate on Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The proud could refer to Saul; see on :51. But being "overthrown" suggests this has been reapplied to the time of Absalom's rebellion. Despite the huge emotional pain of all the betrayal, David's heart was still on God's word and ways.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let those who fear You turn to me; they will know Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :63. If the time of Absalom's rebellion is in view (see on :78), then this would refer to men turning away from the new government and back to David. But it would also apply to those who turned to support David at Saul's time. And David vows that when he comes to power [again, in the Absalom context], he will insist on teaching God's ways.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my heart be blameless toward Your decrees, that I may not be ashamed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame [s:w. "disappointed"] more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>KAF</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul faints for Your salvation; I hope in Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" in view is the promise of becoming king after Saul. And this implied salvation from Saul's persecution, and David longed for that time to come.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My eyes fail for Your word; I say, When will You comfort me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fulfilment of the word of promise that he would become king seemed so far off. David as it were loses sight of it. He feels at times that his "comfort" would only be when that word was fulfilled; and yet he comforts himself at the same time, at the thought of God's previous fulfillments of His promised word (:52):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, but I don’t forget Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may refer to a custom of mellowing wine by putting it in the smoke, implying the affliction was necessary to mature David spiritually. But more likely the idea is that David feels like a shrivelled old wineskin; but regardless of that and his feelings, David continued to be focused upon God's ways.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How many are the days of Your servant? When will You execute Your word on those who persecute me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst on the run from Saul, David felt that he was surely going to die at his hands (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). His faith in the prophetic word that he would be preserved and become king after Saul's demise was pushed to its uttermost. He felt death was but days away, and God must as it were hurry up and fulfil His word of promise or else David would die.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The proud have dug pits for me, contrary to Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note how David correctly and continually analyzes the lead characteristic of his enemies, be they Saul or Absalom, as "pride". David felt pits were dug for him by Saul particularly (s:w. <a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>; <a href='B:230 57:6'>Psa 57:6</a>). We might have said "jealousy", but David saw to the essence- the problem was pride, as it is always to this day. Quite how did they seek to entrap him with pits? The word is used of the trap of women (s:w. <a href='B:240 22:14'>Pro 22:14</a>; <a href='B:240 23:27'>Pro 23:27</a>). Perhaps this was how Saul used his own daughters to entrap David. LXX "Transgressors told me idle tales":&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All of Your commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully. Help me!- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Help me" is s:w. in <a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a>, a Bathsheba Psalm: "Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper". Earlier David had sought Yahweh's help on the basis that he had been obedient to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:173'>Psa 119:173</a> s:w:), and was innocent (<a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a> s:w:). But the sin with Bathsheba led David to beg for God to be his helper purely on the basis of grace (<a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a> s:w:). He had asked for God's words to be his "helper" (<a href='B:230 119:175'>Psa 119:175</a>), but now he quits his academic study and begs directly for God Himself to be his "helper". And yet we note his complaint that he was suffering "wrongfully". Despite Nathan's clear explanation to him about the consequences of his sin, David seems to have constantly complained about the consequences; even though he had been spared death. And I have often noted this about David throughout the Psalms dating from Absalom's rebellion, where David feels he is suffering wrongfully.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They had almost wiped me from the earth, but I didn’t forsake Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This sounds like David being convinced he was at the very point of being slain by Saul (1 Samuel 27; 1 Samuel 1), despite God's word to him about being saved from Saul and made king. He may also refer to the geographical extent of the earth / land, from which he felt he had been made to flee in fear of Saul. But even at the point of extinction of hope, David says he remained obedient to God's laws.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Preserve my life according to Your grace, so I will obey the statutes of Your mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The preservation of David's life from Saul had been promised in the prophetic word to him about him becoming king. But David recognized that his having been chosen as king was by grace, not because he was more righteous than others. And he vows that if his life is preserved from Saul and he became king, then he would rule in obedience to God's laws. Note how David perceived those laws as having come direct from God's very mouth. The law of Moses was to him a living dialogue with God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LAMED</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, Your word is settled in heaven forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David struggles throughout the Psalm to believe that the prophetic word about him becoming king and Saul's demise would ever come true. But he reassures himself that God's word of purpose is "settled", from the Divine side; even if it appeared so unstable in fulfilment on earth. But David believed that what was settled in heaven would ultimately come true on earth.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your faithfulness is to all generations. You have by a word established the earth, and it remains-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This leads David to reflect that the word to him promising to establish his kingdom would just as easily come true. Creation was by a word, God spoke and it was done. And David perceives God's word to him, whether in the form of Mosaic commandments or the word of promise that he was ultimately to survive Saul's persecution and become king of Israel.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your laws remain to this day, for all things serve You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :90, the word through which God created the earth was the same word as the laws and principles applicable to David. And David took comfort that "all things" in creation were subservient to God's word, and likewise His prophetic word about David would likewise without doubt come true and go likewise into operation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Unless Your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "I should then have perished". The "then" is in the Hebrew, and perhaps refers to the point of crisis in :87. Perhaps it was some act of ritual obedience to the law ["torah" is the word here used] which inadvertently saved David from death. Or perhaps he means that God rewarded his obedience by delivering him; but this is at variance with his expressions of faith in God's grace, and his belief that his deliverance from his afflictions was because of God's word of promise to him about becoming king, rather than because of his own righteousness. Or perhaps he here is simply slipping back away from grace, and self-righteously assuming that in fact his preservation had been because of his own obedience to the law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will never forget Your precepts, for with them You have revived me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as God's word had given life and birth to creation and continues to keep it in life (:90-92), so David felt God's word and ways gave him life. Three times David makes the connection between God's precepts and his inner "revival" (<a href='B:230 119:40'>Psa 119:40</a>; <a href='B:230 119:93'>Psa 119:93</a>; <a href='B:230 119:159'>Psa 119:159</a>). God's word is a living word in that it is creative and gives life:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am Yours. Save me, for I have sought Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David asks for salvation not because he has been totally obedient to God's precepts; but because he "sought" such obedience, he loved God's ways and so wished to be obedient, and identified himself as God's.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked have waited for me to destroy me; I will consider Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Living in a situation where enemies set ambushes and traps of various kinds, it would seem to the secular person that absolutely all our attention must be given to avoiding them. But David's mental focus instead was upon God's words and ways. David himself promises to "consider Your statutes" (:95), but he then asks that God will give him "understanding" (s:w. "consider") of those statutes (:125). Our freely chosen attitude to God's word is confirmed and extended by the operation of the Spirit on the human heart.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have seen a limit to all perfection, but Your commands are boundless-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a great theme of this Psalm (:32,45); that obedience to God is not a life of being shut up in a boring and constricted path of being, but rather is the way of ultimate psychological freedom. And it is this which many seek for, and yet look for it in all the wrong places.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>MEM</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How I love Your law! It is my meditation all day-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We meditate upon what we love. The fact David found he was meditating upon God's law meant therefore, axiomatically, that he loved it. This means that the statement that "I love Your law!" is not at all self-righteous or self congratulatory. Although torah is used here for "law", there are multiple examples of torah referring not to the Mosaic law but any statement of God; the word is used many times well before the Mosaic law was given. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for Your commandments are always with me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's survival at the court of Saul seems miraculous. He was in such a difficult, compromised situation. We get the sense that David pitted his wisdom against Saul's anger and bitter persecution; David's wisdom is mentioned in tandem with Saul's anger against him (<a href='B:90 18:5'>1Sa 18:5</a>; <a href='B:90 18:11'>1Sa 18:11</a>; <a href='B:90 18:15'>1Sa 18:15</a>; <a href='B:90 18:30'>1Sa 18:30</a>). "David behaved himself wisely (AVmg “prospered”) in all his ways; and the Lord was with him" runs like a refrain through <a href='B:90 18:5'>1Sa 18:5</a>; <a href='B:90 18:14-15'>1Sa 18:14-15</a>; <a href='B:90 18:30'>1Sa 18:30</a>. These words are referring back to <a href='B:50 29:9'>Deu 29:9</a>: "Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do". David's charmed life and prospering despite all manner of plotting against him was due to his single-minded devotion to the Law; to those very chapters which tired Bible readers are wont to skip over as boring and not motivating. Yet David found something immensely inspiring and practical about the Law. The word made him wiser than his foes (<a href='B:230 119:98'>Psa 119:98</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm was likely edited over a period of time, and we see here some progression from the youthful imagination that David's teachers were perfect (:3). Whilst there may well have been a touch of youthful arrogance here in David, the words came to absolute fulfilment in the Lord Jesus amongst the teachers of the law in Jerusalem at 12 years old. We note that understanding is here predicated upon meditation. David's requests to be given such understanding therefore imply God's Spirit working upon the internal meditations of those who love God's law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I understand more than the aged, because I have kept Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may be an allusion to Job's comment and experience that age is not at all to be linked with understanding. The Pentateuch and book of Job were likely the only texts David had or was aware of. Understanding is here predicated upon keeping God's precepts. The advantage of obedience is that the life it elicits of itself gives us insight and understanding; all part of an intended upward spiral.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have kept my feet from every evil way, that I might observe Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be read on a surface level as David saying he has kept himself from any sin. But the idea is maybe that David knew that if he was walking in a good way, he would find it easier to observe God's word. He knew that there is an upward spiral in spirituality. Or "your word" may refer to the word of promise that David would be king.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You have taught me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David gives God the credit for his obedience, for he recognizes that God has worked upon him to make him obedient. He sees God's "teaching" of His laws, not just the laws themselves, as what led him to obedience.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How sweet are Your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The promises immediately in view were the promises of receiving the Kingdom and the destruction of Saul. Elsewhere David contrasts living by God's word with present wealth; and here we may have a similar contrast. The "honey" offered in prospect by the house of Saul was nothing compared to the promise of the Kingdom.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The experience of obedience to God's precepts of itself gives us added spiritual insight and understanding, a deeper dislike of "every false way", perhaps an allusion to idolatry.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>NUN</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" in view may be the prophetic word that David would be king and Saul would be destroyed. Whilst under persecution from Saul, it seemed hard to believe that word would come true. But David lived as if God's word of promise was what guided his feet (his short term immediate decisions) and his overall path, and believed God would confirm him in his choices (see on :133). Solomon reapplied <a href='B:230 119:105'>Psa 119:105</a> in <a href='B:240 6:23'>Pro 6:23</a>; but his legalism comes out, in that he changed "Your word" (of promise) to "the law" and the "commandments":&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have sworn, and have confirmed it, that I will obey Your righteous ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be another promise from David that when God's word about his kingship came true (see on :105), he would ensure that he would govern according to God's ordinances.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am afflicted very much. Revive me, Yahweh, according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was aware that the word of promise was true- that Saul's days would end, and he would become king. But there were times when this seemed impossible of fulfilment, and David asks God to revive him, to help him see that the prophetic word which he theoretically knew was true- was in fact going to come true for him personally. And we need to pray likewise.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Accept, I beg You, the willing offerings of my mouth. Yahweh, teach me Your ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In exile from the sanctuary, David was unable to offer sacrifice there. And so he matured to understand that the offerings God accepts are those of our mouths, our words. And perhaps David vowed with his mouth to perform sacrifice when he was able to get to the sanctuary. His understanding matured beyond this after his sin with Bathsheba, when he perceived that God wants a contrite heart rather than sacrifices. But already the Father was working to develop his young mind to perceive that literal sacrifices weren't absolutely required. And so He works so gently with us too.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul is continually in my hand, yet I won’t forget Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt he could be slain any moment by Saul and his supporters (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). But he says that he will not forget obedience to God's law even in crisis situations. However torah, "law", had a wide range of application and need not refer strictly to the Mosaic ordinances. He may simply mean that he would not forget God's word of promise:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I haven’t gone astray from Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that the snares laid would have meant going astray from God's precepts. The initial reference may have been to Saul laying snares for David through getting him to marry his daughters and thereby seeking to kill him. But the Psalm finishes with David saying bluntly that he has "gone astray" (:176), as if to say that earlier [as at this point in the Psalm] he far overrated his own obedience to God's law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have taken Your testimonies as a heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David on the run appeared to have no inheritance. But his inheritance was God's "testimonies"- a possible reference not so much to the Mosaic law as to the prophetic testimonies from Samuel that he would inherit the Kingdom and Saul would be deposed.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have set my heart to perform Your statutes forever, even to the end-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Set my heart" is the word for "incline", used by David of how he himself inclined his heart to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:51'>Psa 119:51</a>; <a href='B:230 119:112'>Psa 119:112</a>; <a href='B:230 119:157'>Psa 119:157</a>). But David prayed that God would incline his heart towards His word (<a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>) and away from sin (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>). This is how the Holy Spirit works to this day- we are confirmed in the psychological attitudes we ourselves choose to have. The word is used of God's mighty "stretched out" arm and "strong hand" in human affairs (<a href='B:230 136:12'>Psa 136:12</a> and often in Isaiah). This powerful hand of God is at work in human hearts, confirming us in the psychological way in which we ourselves wish to go. In this sense God turns or inclines the heart where He wishes (<a href='B:240 21:1'>Pro 21:1</a>). Solomon in the Proverbs places all the emphasis upon a person themselves in their own strength inclining their heart toward his teaching (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:5'>Pro 4:5</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>). He fails to appreciate what David his father did; that God's word is His word and not that of the human channel through which it comes. And he totally puts the emphasis upon human strength of will, self inclination towards God's word, rather than perceiving as David did that without God's psychological help in this, we shall ultimately fail. As Solomon himself did.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>SAMEKH</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate double-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>minded men, but I love Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "vain thoughts" or "vanities", perhaps a reference to idolatry as well as to the hypocrisy of Saul. David so often talks about God's "law", using the word torah. But Solomon so often speaks of his own torah, and that of his wife, the mother of "my son" (s:w. <a href='B:240 1:8'>Pro 1:8</a>; <a href='B:240 3:1'>Pro 3:1</a>; <a href='B:240 4:2'>Pro 4:2</a>; <a href='B:240 6:20'>Pro 6:20</a>; <a href='B:240 7:2'>Pro 7:2</a>; <a href='B:240 13:14'>Pro 13:14</a>; <a href='B:240 31:26'>Pro 31:26</a>). Yet elsewhere in the Bible, the well over 200 occurrences of torah are always about God's law. Solomon applies the word to his own teachings and that of his wife, and thereby plays God. whilst it could be argued that Solomon's teachings were Divinely inspired, all the same he ought surely to have spoken of them as God's torah rather than his own torah. This kind of playing God is seen so often in the teachers of God's people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When hiding from Saul in the wilderness [s:w. of David's "hiding places" at this time in <a href='B:90 19:2'>1Sa 19:2</a>; <a href='B:90 25:20'>1Sa 25:20</a>], David hoped in the prophetic word that one day Saul would be no more and David would be king.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Depart from me, You evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the word for how God had departed from Saul, and maybe this was initially behind David's desire that Saul leave him alone. But it is also the word used for how violence would never depart from David because of his sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:100 12:10'>2Sa 12:10</a>). David prayed for this to "depart" but it never did. David was open to the possibility that through prayer, God can remove the consequences of sin in this life; but such prayer is not always answered.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live. Let me not be ashamed of my hope-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "expectation". The parallel between "Your word" and David's hope or expectation confirms the suggestion that the "word" in view in this Psalm is the specific promise to David of becoming king after Saul's judgment and destruction. But David felt that the fulfilment of that prophetic word required him to be unashamed of it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hold me up and I will be safe, and will have respect for Your statutes continually-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David respected God's words, so he asks God to spare or respect him (s:w. <a href='B:230 39:13'>Psa 39:13</a>). This is not to be read as meaning that Bible study assures a man of salvation; but rather that there is a mutuality in relationship between God and man. Our respect of His words is reflected in His saving respect of us. But in the immediate context, David is asking for God to preserve him from Saul, and vowing to always enforce God's statutes when he becomes king.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You reject all those who stray from Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David here uses the same word for how Saul 'wandered' or strayed out of the way (s:w. <a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>), and David seems to have initially written Psalms 119 in his wilderness years. Saul was rejected from being king because of thIsa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For their deceit is in vain-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Vain" is better "wrongfully" reflects again David's deep sense of injustice (see on <a href='B:230 35:7'>Psa 35:7</a>). He uses the word for "false witness", as if they were breaking one of the ten commandments; and he uses it often, heaping condemnation upon any who dare lie / bear false witness about him (<a href='B:230 38:19'>Psa 38:19</a>; <a href='B:230 52:3'>Psa 52:3</a>; <a href='B:230 63:11'>Psa 63:11</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:29'>Psa 119:29</a>; <a href='B:230 119:69'>Psa 119:69</a>; <a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a>; <a href='B:230 120:2'>Psa 120:2</a>; <a href='B:230 144:8'>Psa 144:8</a>; <a href='B:230 144:11'>Psa 144:11</a>). And yet David lied and deceived in order to get Uriah killed so that he could take his wife for himself. Surely reflection upon that sin made him realize that his zeal to condemn dishonesty was at best misplaced; to lament it is one thing, but David was to be taught that he had himself done the very thing he so condemned.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore I love Your testimonies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" so often in view in this Psalm is the prophetic "testimony" that Saul would be deposed and David would become king. This is the same situation in view here, when the wicked of the earth would be put away. David speaks in the present tense of that which he believed was yet to happen- such was his faith in the prophetic word.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My flesh trembles for fear of You; I am afraid of Your judgments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "Penetrate my flesh with thy fear; for I am afraid of thy judgments". The preceding verses have all alluded to how God's word of promise was that He would judge Saul and replace him with David. But David concludes this verse of the Psalm with a request to have God's direct action upon his mind so that he would personally tremble before God's moral requirements.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AYIN</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have done what is just and righteous. Don’t leave me to my oppressors-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oppression seems to have been a characteristic of the reigns of Saul and Absalom. This was the equivalent of how Saul oppressed David (<a href='B:230 119:121-122'>Psa 119:121-122</a>; <a href='B:230 119:134'>Psa 119:134</a>). Samuel's insistence that he has not oppressed the people is in the context of his warning that Saul would do this (<a href='B:90 12:3-4'>1Sa 12:3-4</a>). When Solomon later condemns the 'oppressors' (s:w. <a href='B:240 14:31'>Pro 14:31</a>; <a href='B:240 22:16'>Pro 22:16</a>; <a href='B:240 28:3'>Pro 28:3</a>; <a href='B:240 28:24'>Pro 28:24</a>), he has in view a wishing of judgment upon the house of Saul. "The poor" whom they had oppressed would easily refer to David (<a href='B:90 18:23'>1Sa 18:23</a>; <a href='B:230 34:6'>Psa 34:6</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ensure Your servant’s well-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>being. Don’t let the proud oppress me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :121. This appears to be the one verse in Psalms 119 that doesn't mention God's word. But it does so effectively, once we understand that the Psalm is largely about David's request for the prophetic word to come true- of him becoming King and Saul's demise. Again we note that "the proud" is Saul; this was the lead characteristic which characterized his entire failure. His jealousy over David being more praised by the women than he was reveals the basic pride which grew into the obsessive feature of his personality.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My eyes fail looking for Your salvation, for Your righteous word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Salvation" is Yeshua, 'Jesus', "the word made flesh" (<a href='B:500 1:14'>Joh 1:14</a>). But in the immediate context, the fulfilment of God's prophetic word about Saul's demise meant David's salvation. The admission that his eyes were failing in looking for thIsa::. is as if to say 'My faith is failing in Your promised salvation, but I accept Your word is right and just; please give me faith in Your word again'. Constantly we see the implication that God gives faith, and it is not true that God simply faces off against man over an open Bible, and it is for us to summon the faith to believe it, in our own strength.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deal with Your servant according to Your grace, teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From his youth, David had asked to be taught God's way (<a href='B:230 119:7'>Psa 119:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:12'>Psa 119:12</a>; <a href='B:230 119:26'>Psa 119:26</a>; <a href='B:230 119:64'>Psa 119:64</a>; <a href='B:230 119:66'>Psa 119:66</a>; <a href='B:230 119:68'>Psa 119:68</a>; <a href='B:230 119:73'>Psa 119:73</a>; <a href='B:230 119:108'>Psa 119:108</a>; <a href='B:230 119:124'>Psa 119:124</a>; <a href='B:230 119:135'>Psa 119:135</a>), and at the end of his life David recognized that indeed God had "taught me from my youth" (s:w. <a href='B:230 71:17'>Psa 71:17</a>). In secular life, teaching is something experienced in youth, and then life is spent practicing what was learned. But in spiritual life, David perceived that the God who had taught him from his youth was continuing to teach him (<a href='B:230 71:17'>Psa 71:17</a>). This is part of the "newness of life" experienced in Christ, the ever fresh spring water that we drink.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am Your servant. Give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David himself promises to "consider Your statutes" (:95), but he then asks that God will give him "understanding" (s:w. "consider") of those statutes (:125). Our freely chosen attitude to God's word is confirmed and extended by the operation of the Spirit on the human heart. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is time to act, Yahweh, for they break Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David wants God to fulfil immediately His word of promise that Saul would be overthrown and David established king. It was the same frustration at the apparent slowness of fulfilment of a prophetic word which the exiles experienced, along with all the faithful.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, more than pure gold-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again David points the contrast between God's commands, and the love of wealth. So often love of wealth is presented as the most common form of spiritual downfall, and the antithesis of loving God and His word:&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore I consider all of Your precepts to be right; I hate every false way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Every false way" may refer to idols, which were prevalent in Israel at David's time. The "therefore" connects with the previous verse, which condemns the love of wealth. There is an upward spiral in spirituality. Once wealth has been rejected (:127), "therefore" we appreciate the rightness of God's precepts, and all the more hate false ways. This love of what is just and hatred of what is false means that we will not vicariously enjoy the "false" through viewing movies about it; we will simply love what is right and thereby hate all that is false:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>PEY</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul keeps them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The motivation for obedience is related to our attitude to God's word. This is why our understanding of the nature of Biblical inspiration has an effect upon our actual walk before God in practice.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The entrance of Your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David likens himself to the simple who was made wise by God's word (<a href='B:230 19:7'>Psa 19:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:130'>Psa 119:130</a>), and was therefore preserved (<a href='B:230 116:6'>Psa 116:6</a>). To be taught by God's word we have to become "simple", unlearning and placing to one side all our perceived knowledge and understandings. Solomon repeats David's theme by saying that wisdom makes wise the simple (<a href='B:240 1:4'>Pro 1:4</a>; <a href='B:240 8:5'>Pro 8:5</a>; <a href='B:240 9:4'>Pro 9:4</a>). But he is equating "wisdom" with the words of God, although for Solomon, "wisdom" seems to be what he is saying and teaching. Solomon doesn't direct his listeners back to God's word, as David did, but rather towards loyalty to his teaching. Inspired as it was, his lack of extended reference to God's law places his own teaching of "wisdom" above that law. This is in sharp contrast to David's attitude in Psalms 119. David sees God's words as entering him and giving him understanding; as if God takes the initiative in entering the mind of man.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the Hebrew for "entrance" is literally 'opening', and may be an idiom for explaining or teaching (as in <a href='B:230 49:4'>Psa 49:4</a>; <a href='B:230 78:2'>Psa 78:2</a>). Hence GNB "The explanation of your teachings gives light":&nbsp; "Gives light" is the word for daybreak; the idea may be that a new day dawns in the lives of the person who has God's word explained to them and they accept it. We note that the light is not simply the word of God, but its explanation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The opening of the mouth suggests a desire to have something put into the mouth. David knew the commandments, so we surely have to understand an ellipsis here, "longing for [obedience to] Your commandments". Constantly we are given the impression that mere possession of God's word is not enough; there must be some further action of God, in teaching and strengthening- what the New Testament calls the work of the Holy Spirit.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You always do to those who love Your name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As often, David appeals to God's actions in history for other believers in the past ["always"]- at a time when he felt God hadn't turned to him, hadn't paid attention to him in his immediate crises.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Establish my footsteps in Your word; don’t let any iniquity have dominion over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recognized that God's word of promise that he would be king and Saul would be deposed, was what should guide the choice of steps he himself took (see on :105). But he asks that his choices, the steps he chose in response to that hope and understanding, should be "established" or confirmed by God. And his request to not be dominated by sin suggests he realized that God's prophetic intentions for him were all the same conditional upon his continued correct walk. And he believed God has the power to keep us from falling into sin (<a href='B:720 1:24'>Jud 1:24</a>). Constantly we see the work of the Spirit over and above a man looking at God's word and trying to find the steel will to make himself obedient to it. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Redeem me from the oppression of man, so that I will observe Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :121. The "oppression" in view was the persecution by Saul, and David vowed that if and when God's word came true and he became king, he would govern according to God's precepts.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Make Your face shine on Your servant. Teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The passages which talk about God's face shining upon men refer primarily to the Angel in the Most Holy shining forth in blessing upon men. Far from the sanctuary in the desert, David felt this closeness to God. It was Moses who 'taught [God's] statutes' to Israel (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:1'>Deu 4:1</a>; <a href='B:50 4:5'>Deu 4:5</a>; <a href='B:50 4:14'>Deu 4:14</a>; <a href='B:50 5:31'>Deu 5:31</a>). David in the wilderness felt such a personal relationship with God that he felt God personally teaching him, without the intermediary of any teacher like Moses. And this kind of intimacy is still possible with God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe Your law-</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "they" could refer to David's eyes, or this could be another lament for the disobedience of his persecutors. Likewise the faithful in Ezekiel’s time sighed and groaned over all the abominations committed in Jerusalem (<a href='B:330 9:4'>Eze 9:4</a>); Paul spoke “even with tears” about those in the ecclesia who lived as enemies of the cross of Christ (Php_3:18), exhorting the Corinthians to mourn for those they had to disfellowship (<a href='B:530 5:2'>1Co 5:2</a>; <a href='B:540 12:21'>2Co 12:21</a>); Ezra wept for the sins of his people (<a href='B:150 10:1'>Ezr 10:1</a>). The bleeding hearts of Jeremiah and Moses were actually for the ecclesia. Is this attitude seen amongst us? We lament in a gossipy way the weaknesses of the brotherhood; but is there this bleeding heart for the cases we mention? We should never think of disfellowshipping anybody unless the decision has been come to through a process of such prayerful mourning for them first.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>TZADI</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are righteous, Yahweh; Your judgments are upright-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "just". Here and in :138 David seems to be reasoning against some implication or position that God's laws are somehow unjust or unreasonable. This was perhaps the position of Saul, who impatiently disobeyed God's law (<a href='B:90 15:22'>1Sa 15:22</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have commanded Your statutes in righteousness; they are fully trustworthy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Righteousness" and "truth" [s:w. "trustworthy"] are words found together in <a href='B:90 26:23'>1Sa 26:23</a>, where Saul recognizes David had acted in "righteousness and truth" in not killing him when he could have done. Perhaps David is reflecting upon how God's "statutes" had led him not to kill Saul.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My zeal wears me out, because my enemies ignore Your words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The command to "not forget [the] word" was given in <a href='B:50 4:9'>Deu 4:9</a> (s:w:). Israel were to never forget that they were in covenant relationship with Yahweh, and the gift of His word to them was so wonderful they were never to forget it. Our awareness of the wonder of having God's word will elicit our delight in it. A John Carter rightly pointed out, our attitude to God's word determines our obedience to it. This is where attitudes to inspiration are so important in practical living. Saul's enemies were Saul and his supporters, who impatiently disobeyed God's law (<a href='B:90 15:22'>1Sa 15:22</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and Your servant loves them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's promises to David that he would become king and Saul would be destroyed seemed so far away from fulfilment at the time. But David reflects that historically, God's promises to others had been fulfilled. We encounter this reasoning often in David's Psalms. It is in sharp contrast to the excuse for unbelief we often encounter- that God has not come through for me in my experience right now at this moment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am small and despised but I don’t forget Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A sensitive person like David was going to be deeply hurt by being despised as he was by his brothers and his wife (<a href='B:100 6:16'>2Sa 6:16</a> s:w:), and as he was by Goliath (s:w. <a href='B:90 17:42'>1Sa 17:42</a>) and later by all his people after the sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 22:6'>Psa 22:6</a> s:w:). This would explain why David so often takes comfort in the way that God doesn't despise him (<a href='B:230 22:24'>Psa 22:24</a>; <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:230 69:33'>Psa 69:33</a>; <a href='B:230 102:17'>Psa 102:17</a>). It is God's perspective which is so critical in overcoming the negative self-image which others seek to project onto us.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness; Your law is truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "always true". Thus the eternity of God's truth is paralleled with the eternity of His righteousness (as in :160). David walked / lived "in truth and righteousness" (s:w. <a href='B:110 3:6'>1Ki 3:6</a>; <a href='B:230 15:2'>Psa 15:2</a>), because this was how God Isa. The Messianic seed of David was to have this characteristic, ruling on David's throne in truth and righteousness (s:w. <a href='B:290 16:5'>Isa 16:5</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me, but Your commandments are my delight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggest the parallel is with :139. David is troubled for those who do not delight in God's commandments. But he himself does delight in them. "Trouble and anguish" is the term used for condemnation (<a href='B:220 15:24'>Job 15:24</a>; <a href='B:240 1:27'>Pro 1:27</a>; <a href='B:520 2:9'>Rom 2:9</a>). David is so identified with the wicked that like the Lord Jesus, he as it were feels their condemnation, whilst being personally innocent.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The internal connection of the verse is that the eternity of God's testimonies is connected with the eternal living of David. David sees eternity, or at least living instead of dying at the hand of Saul, as connected with his identity with God's testimonies which are eternal.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>KUF</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have called with my whole heart. Answer me, Yahweh! I will keep Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This and the following verses appear to be David's intense cry for deliverance from a particular period of his persecution by Saul. It appeared he faced death, but he remembers God's word promising that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of. He promises obedience to God's laws if he is delivered; and I suggest this primarily means he was vowing to govern Israel according to the Mosaic law. Or it could be that he felt he was suffering because of personal disobedience, and asks for deliverance with the promise that in future he will keep God's laws. In this application, these verses may also have relevance to David's sufferings as a result of his sin with Bathsheba. But see on :146:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have called to You. Save me! I will obey Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :145. David says that he has 'obeyed Your statutes' (s:w. :167,68). Perhaps he means that when God fulfills His promise to make him king, which required immediately saving him from some situation with Saul, he would continue to "obey Your statutes" in the way he governed Israel. But perhaps he feels he is suffering because of disobeying God's statutes. And yet later in :167,168 he says he has obeyed them. This difficulty in self examination [which we also can identify with] is reflected in how David also says in different Psalms that Israel both obeyed God's statutes, and also disobeyed them (<a href='B:230 78:56'>Psa 78:56</a> cp. 99:7).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I rise before dawn and cry for help, I put my hope in Your words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :145. David's first waking moments were naturally of prayer to God. And this is our pattern. He often mentions his habit of regular prayer morning and evening (<a href='B:230 5:3'>Psa 5:3</a>; <a href='B:230 55:17'>Psa 55:17</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16'>Psa 59:16</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:147'>Psa 119:147</a>). This&nbsp; should not have to be enforced upon us, but rather the natural outcome of a life lived in constant connection with God. David perceived that the Mosaic ritual of morning and evening sacrifice taught the sacrifice of prayer should be made in daily life, even though at the time of many of the Psalms, David was exiled from the sanctuary. This exile from organized religion led him to make this connection, as it can for us too.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalms give further insight into the disciplined nature of David's prayer-life: "Evening and morning and at noon will I pray" (<a href='B:230 55:17'>Psa 55:17</a>); "I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning" (<a href='B:230 59:16'>Psa 59:16</a>); "in the morning shall my prayer come before you" (<a href='B:230 88:13'>Psa 88:13</a>); "to praise your mercy in the morning, and your faithfulness every night" (<a href='B:230 92:2'>Psa 92:2</a>); "before the dawning of the morning, I hope in your word" (<a href='B:230 119:147'>Psa 119:147</a>). This kind of self-discipline is the utter essence of practical Christianity. It is through this that we will realize every morning that God is our "arm", our strength, for the coming day (<a href='B:290 33:2'>Isa 33:2</a>); and God's mercies are only renewed every morning in that the righteous man thinks afresh about them every morning (<a href='B:310 3:23'>Lam 3:23</a>)- for God's mercy itself is around the clock! Likewise the comment in <a href='B:430 3:5'>Zep 3:5</a> that God's judgments are revealed every morning only becomes true in that the believer meditates upon God's word each morning.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My eyes stay open through the night watches, that I might meditate on Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" in view may refer specifically to the promise that he would be preserved from Saul's persecution to become king. And when that promise seemed so unlikely of fulfilment, he stayed awake at night imagining how it might come to fulfilment.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or we can take "Your word" to refer to God's word generally, such as was revealed to David at that time. The whole of Psalms 119 describes how he rejoiced at God's law, staying up late at night, straining his eyes into the candlelight to read it, getting up first thing in the morning to read some more (<a href='B:230 119:147-148'>Psa 119:147-148</a>). He obviously saw something in it that perhaps we don't. Perhaps he appreciated more keenly the prophecies of Messiah than we do. Peter makes the point that David knew so much about Jesus, although he wasn't even born then, that David could say: "I foresaw the Lord (Jesus) always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved" (<a href='B:510 2:25'>Act 2:25</a>). David "foresaw" the coming of Jesus at all times; the only source of knowledge he had was the Law of Moses (remember David lived before the time of the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah). Jesus was ever present in David's thinking; thanks to his meditation upon the Law of Moses and the book of Job, which was likely all the scripture then available to him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear my voice according to Your grace. Revive me, Yahweh, according to Your ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If the ordinances in view are the prophetic words that he would become king, even when it seemed impossible whilst under persecution from Saul, then we note that David realized that this was all to be according to God's grace, rather than his worthiness. Even though God saw him as a man after His own heart. And David asks God to revive his faith in those promises. Otherwise it is hard to see how revival of faith was specifically promised in the "ordinances" of the Mosaic law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They draw near who follow after wickedness, they are far from Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Draw near" is a common idiom for offering sacrifice and worshipping God. But that sacrifice must be from men who are near to God's law, and not offering just as mere tokenistic ritualism. He may be alluding to Saul's insincere sacrifices and religious rituals which led to his rejection and David's choice as the next king (<a href='B:90 14:36'>1Sa 14:36</a>; <a href='B:90 14:38'>1Sa 14:38</a>; <a href='B:90 15:22'>1Sa 15:22</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are near, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the idea of :150. Insincere men claim to draw near to God in worship and sacrifice, but God is near to those like David who are far from any sanctuary of religious rituals. "Near" is literally, 'next to', 'neighbour / relative to'. This is how close God feels to the broken hearted and crushed; and conversely, how far He is from the self satisfied and self congratulatory, 'the strong' in secular terms. It is this feature of Yahweh which makes Him unique; no other God has this characteristic of 'nearness' (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:7'>Deu 4:7</a>):&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All Your commandments are truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Truth" is a word often associated with the covenant. The "truth" of covenant relationship binds Him to those truly within the covenant. "Truth" is often used in a covenantal context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Of old I have known from Your testimonies, that You have founded them forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David may refer to how he had learnt from "of old", in his youth, that God keeps his word. The adventures and answered prayers of boyhood and youth remained real to him, and he didn't just pass them off as the stuff of youth. But we note that he learnt that God keeps His word "from Your testimonies". He saw internal evidence from his own experience of God's word. And this is the basis of faith; not so much empirical, apologetic evidence, as something within God's own revelation which elicits further faith. What he had in view was that God's prophetic testimony through Samuel that he would one day would become king- was founded forever, and would not change.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>RESH</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider my affliction and deliver me, for I don’t forget Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be read as one of several points in this Psalm, written in relative youth, where David overestimates his obedience. He legalistically assumes that he ought to be delivered from whatever affliction he faced because of his stellar loyalty to God's word. This would explain the otherwise strange ending of Psalms 119, where David confesses he is a lost sheep and has not at all been obedient to God's way as he ought to have been.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Plead my cause, and redeem me! Revive me according to Your promise-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "promise" was the promise that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of- which often must have seemed so unlikely of fulfilment. Just as unlikely as the promise that "little me" shall one day be a king-priest of God's kingdom, in the power of an endless life; when we are so weak and faultering in our understanding and devotion. David sees his situation with Saul as being played out before the court of heaven; and he asks God to act not only as judge [who could "redeem"] but also as his advocate for the defence, who could "plead my cause". Paul uses this same idea in Romans 1-8, triumphing that if God "be for us", as both judge and advocate, then nothing can go against us (<a href='B:520 8:31'>Rom 8:31</a>). Sinners that we are.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don’t seek Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note that David often [although not always, see on :153] speaks in terms of 'seeking' God's laws, rather than being totally obedient to them. <a href='B:150 7:10'>Ezr 7:10</a> uses the same term, and differentiates between "seeking" and "doing" the statutes. We see in Psalms 119 a man "after God's own heart"; not in that he was morally perfect nor totally obedient, but in that he wished and sought after such obedience, and loved God's laws rather than despised them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Great are Your tender mercies, Yahweh. Revive me according to Your ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The parallel is with :154 "Revive me according to Your promise". The "promise" was the promise that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of- which often must have seemed so unlikely of fulfilment. And this is the set of "ordinances" in view here. But becoming king was to be by God's tender mercy, "the sure mercies of [i:e. given to] David" (<a href='B:290 55:3'>Isa 55:3</a>). Repeatedly David says this; that the fulfilment of God's word to him about becoming king would be the outworking of His grace (:41,76,88,124,149,159).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I haven’t swerved from Your testimonies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Swerved" is the word for "incline", used by David of how he himself inclined his heart to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:51'>Psa 119:51</a>; <a href='B:230 119:112'>Psa 119:112</a>; <a href='B:230 119:157'>Psa 119:157</a>). But David prayed that God would incline his heart towards His word (<a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>) and away from sin (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>). This is how the Holy Spirit works to this day- we are confirmed in the psychological attitudes we ourselves choose to have. The word is used of God's mighty "stretched out" arm and "strong hand" in human affairs (<a href='B:230 136:12'>Psa 136:12</a> and often in Isaiah). This powerful hand of God is at work in human hearts, confirming us in the psychological way in which we ourselves wish to go. In this sense God turns or inclines the heart where He wishes (<a href='B:240 21:1'>Pro 21:1</a>). Solomon in the Proverbs places all the emphasis upon a person themselves in their own strength inclining their heart toward his teaching (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:5'>Pro 4:5</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>). He fails to appreciate what David his father did; that God's word is His word and not that of the human channel through which it comes. And he totally puts the emphasis upon human strength of will, self inclination towards God's word, rather than perceiving as David did that without God's psychological help in this, we shall ultimately fail. As Solomon himself did.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I look at the faithless with loathing, because they don’t observe Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s eyes wept "because they keep not Your law", and yet he grieved for those who do not keep Gods word (<a href='B:230 119:136'>Psa 119:136</a>; <a href='B:230 119:158'>Psa 119:158</a>). In other words, he grieved for where their way of life would lead them, even though he saw that at times he behaved like them. "The faithless" primarily refer to Saul and his followers. David loathed Saul at this time, and yet when Saul dies, he weeps for him deeply (see on 2 Samuel 1). We can conclude that part of that weeping was because David had felt so harshly about him, he wept for him as a man for his mother, lamenting he had not appreciated her as he ought to have done (<a href='B:230 35:14'>Psa 35:14</a>). We note too the parallel between being faithless and not observing the word. Faith comes by hearing [obeying] the word of God in that the experience of the obedient life elicits more faith (<a href='B:520 10:17'>Rom 10:17</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider how I love Your precepts. Revive me, Yahweh, according to Your grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as God's word had given life and birth to creation and continues to keep it in life (:90-92), so David felt God's word and ways gave him life. Three times David makes the connection between God's precepts and his inner "revival" (<a href='B:230 119:40'>Psa 119:40</a>; <a href='B:230 119:93'>Psa 119:93</a>; <a href='B:230 119:159'>Psa 119:159</a>). God's word is a living word in that it is creative and gives life. Repeatedly David says that the fulfilment of God's word to him about becoming king would be the outworking of His grace (:41,76,88,124,149,159). Here he says that God's grace would revive him, but elsewhere that the word [of promised kingship] would revive him (:25,50,93,107,149):&nbsp; </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All of Your words are truth, every one of Your righteous ordinances endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The phrase "word of truth" is specifically used of the promises made to David in <a href='B:100 7:28'>2Sa 7:28</a>, which began with the promise that David would become king and Saul would be deposed. David had feared in :43 that they could somehow be abrogated, but now he expresses his confidence that the promise of the Kingdom was eternal:&nbsp;Thus the eternity of God's truth is paralleled with the eternity of His righteousness (as in :142). David walked / lived "in truth and righteousness" (s:w. <a href='B:110 3:6'>1Ki 3:6</a>; <a href='B:230 15:2'>Psa 15:2</a>), because this was how God Isa. The Messianic seed of David was to have this characteristic, ruling on David's throne in truth and righteousness (s:w. <a href='B:290 16:5'>Isa 16:5</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>SIN AND SHIN</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul's sons, David's brothers-in-law, the brothers of his deep best friend, joined their father in persecuting him in the wilderness years . These are the "princes" in view, although later the words applied to princes like Absalom:&nbsp;The continued emphasis in David's psalms upon "without cause" surely reflects a self righteousness (<a href='B:230 35:19'>Psa 35:19</a>; <a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:161'>Psa 119:161</a>). For David's righteousness was only impressive relative to the wickedness of his enemies; before God, it was filthy rags. It was true that Saul persecuted David "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:90 19:5'>1Sa 19:5</a>), but the experience of "without cause" persecution can lead us to an inappropriate self-righteousness. This is what happened to Job, who also suffered "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>), and had to be convicted of self-righteousness at the end of the story. And it seems this happened to David. David himself intended to shed blood "without cause" and was only saved from it by grace (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:31'>1Sa 25:31</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I rejoice at Your word, as one who finds great spoil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord based His parables of the lost sheep and the man finding the treasure of the Gospel in a field on the statements of David (<a href='B:230 119:162'>Psa 119:162</a>; <a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a>), as if He saw David as representative of all those who would truly come to Him. The word in view was initially the promise that David would become king. This was David's joy during his afflictions at the hands of Saul. This is also another example of where David compares wealth against the things of God's word of promise. The desire to accumulate wealth is particularly strong for young men in David's position.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate and abhor falsehood but I love Your law-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "falsehood" in view was likely the idolatry practiced by Saul.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Seven times a day I praise You because of Your righteous ordinances-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to how David regularly reminded himself throughout every day of his persecution by Saul that the word / ordinances of promise were that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who love Your law have great peace; nothing causes them to stumble-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst this is true in a general sense, the word in view was the promise that he would become king and Saul would be disposed of. But the "those" in view would have been those like Samuel whose lives of loving God's law were known to David.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have hoped for Your salvation, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These almost seem the words of Simeon in the temple. "Salvation" is Yeshua, 'Jesus', "the word made flesh" (<a href='B:500 1:14'>Joh 1:14</a>). But in the shorter term, the salvation David hoped for was that from Saul, promised in God's prophetic word to him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have done Your commandments-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be read as one of several points in this Psalm, written in relative youth, where David overestimates his obedience. He legalistically assumes that he ought to be delivered from whatever affliction he faced because of his stellar loyalty to God's word. This would explain the otherwise strange ending of Psalms 119, where David confesses he is a lost sheep and has not at all been obedient to God's way as he ought to have been.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul has observed Your testimonies because I love them exceedingly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :166. Obedience is related to how much we love the commandment being obeyed; and that requires a basic love of God, and everything about Him, perceiving His character which we love revealed in all His commandments. David in the wilderness was unable to be legally obedient to all the commandments; hence he says that his "soul" observed them. Actual total obedience is effectively impossible for us all, but we can still love God's ways and testimonies.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have obeyed Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :146 David promises that "I will obey Your statutes / precepts" (s:w:). But here David says that he has 'obeyed Your statutes' (s:w. :167,68). Perhaps he meant in :146 that when God fulfills His promise to make him king, which required immediately saving him from some situation with Saul, he would continue to "obey Your statutes" in the way he governed Israel. But perhaps he feels he is suffering because of disobeying God's statutes. And yet here in :167,168 he says he has obeyed them. This difficulty in self examination [which we also can identify with] is reflected in how David also says in different Psalms that Israel both obeyed God's statutes, and also disobeyed them (<a href='B:230 78:56'>Psa 78:56</a> cp. 99:7).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>TAV</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my cry come near before You, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Truly can we pray David’s prayers. So often, prayer is described as coming near to God (<a href='B:230 119:169'>Psa 119:169</a> etc:)- and yet God “is” near already. Prayer, therefore, is a way of making us realize the presence of the God who is always present. You are not alone, I am not alone; “For I am with you”. God is with us for us in His Son. Of course, we must draw near to Him (<a href='B:230 73:28'>Psa 73:28</a>); and yet He is already near, not far from every one of us (<a href='B:510 17:27'>Act 17:27</a>). David often speaks of drawing near to God, and yet he invites God to draw near to him (<a href='B:230 69:18'>Psa 69:18</a>). Yet David also recognizes that God “is” near already (<a href='B:230 75:1'>Psa 75:1</a>). I take all this to mean that like us, David recognized that God “is” near, and yet wished God to make His presence real to him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give me understanding according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again, David is asking for something beyond God's word itself. God can give us "understanding" of it. Or if the "word" in view is specifically the promise that David would be king, he could be asking for wisdom ["understanding"] in how to rule Israel. And this was likewise the prayer of Solomon when he became king (<a href='B:110 3:9'>1Ki 3:9</a>); but his motives were less than pure because he was consciously seeking to imitate his father in this request.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my supplication come before You and deliver me according to Your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is to the word of promise that David would become king, and Saul's abuse of him end. He imagines his prayer for that "word" to come true as coming "before" God. He visualized a court of heaven, before which his prayers came for consideration.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my lips utter praise, for You teach me Your statutes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It was Moses who 'taught [God's] statutes' to Israel (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:1'>Deu 4:1</a>; <a href='B:50 4:5'>Deu 4:5</a>; <a href='B:50 4:14'>Deu 4:14</a>; <a href='B:50 5:31'>Deu 5:31</a>). David in the wilderness felt such a personal relationship with God that he felt God personally teaching him, without the intermediary of any teacher like Moses. And this kind of intimacy is still possible with God. David knew the "statutes", but he wanted God to teach them to him in practice. There is a huge difference between mere Bible reading, and God teaching us to the meaning of His word.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my tongue sing of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We may enquire why David speaks of his singing about God's word as yet future; why doesn't he do so at the time? It makes sense if we understand "Your word" as referring to the word of promise that David would become king, and Saul's abuse of him end.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Help me" is s:w. in <a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a>, a Bathsheba Psalm: "Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper". Earlier David had sought Yahweh's help on the basis that he had been obedient to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:173'>Psa 119:173</a> s:w:), and was innocent (<a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a> s:w:). But the sin with Bathsheba led David to beg for God to be his helper purely on the basis of grace (<a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a> s:w:). See on :175. But the immediate "help" in view was help against Saul. Again we note that David doesn't claim total obedience; but that he had "chosen Your precepts".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have longed for Your salvation, Yahweh. Your law is my delight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These almost seem the words of Simeon in the temple. "Salvation" is Yeshua, 'Jesus', "the word made flesh" (<a href='B:500 1:14'>Joh 1:14</a>). But in the shorter term, the salvation David hoped for was that from Saul, promised in God's prophetic word to him. And his response was going to be to govern Israel according to God's law which he delighted in.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my soul live, that I may praise You. Let Your ordinances help me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :173 David asks for God to "help him" to escape Saul's persecution when it seemed his soul would not live (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>) and to become king, according to God's word of promise. And so here he asks that those promises or ordinances would help him. "Help me" is s:w. in <a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a>, a Bathsheba Psalm: "Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper". He had earlier asked for God's words to be his "helper" (<a href='B:230 119:175'>Psa 119:175</a>), but later after sinning with Bathsheba he quits his academic study and begs directly for God Himself to be his "helper". See on :173.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek Your servant, for I don’t forget Your commandments- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may appear a strange ending, and structurally it appears to have been added on. I suggest it was likely written by David with his mind on his follies relating to Bathsheba, so far from the spirit of his youthful devotion to God's law and ways. And yet it is the taken by the Lord and used as the basis for the parable of the lost sheep, whereby all who have sinned go through the David experience.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The lost sheep who leaves the fold and goes off (<a href='B:470 18:12'>Mat 18:12</a>) is based on this verse. The lost sheep that is found therefore has the attitude of recognizing it is lost, that it is still the servant of the shepherd although isolated from him, and still has not forgotten the things of God's word. The picture in <a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a> is strange indeed: a lost sheep asking the shepherd to come and find him. It's as if the sheep talks to himself, feeling the shepherd can't and won't hear, feeling that he's just too far away. And this is exactly the position of all those who leave the faith and return: they don't forget the doctrines of the Faith, in their hearts they feel too far away, but they wish somehow something could happen to get them back. This explains the type of sheep one is dealing with in the parable, and why the parable isn't true of all who go astray.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In my distress, I cried to Yahweh. He answered me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah's cry for healing, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David would have been referring to Saul and later to Doeg and Ahithophel (the same words are used about the deceitful tongue of Doeg in <a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>); Hezekiah would have had in mind the lies pouring from the lips of Rabshakeh outside the walls of Jerusalem. The returning exiles singing this may have had in view the false accusations of Haman. David's intolerance of "deceitful" persons (<a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 120:3'>Psa 120:3</a>) must be compared with the fact that he himself was only counted as not deceitful by grace; for he was very deceitful regarding Uriah. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was to later plot the destruction of Uriah by his words; and when he repented of this in <a href='B:230 32:2'>Psa 32:2</a>, he says that lack of deceit / guile (s:w:) is only possible through imputed righteousness. David's intolerance of "deceitful" persons (<a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 120:3'>Psa 120:3</a>) must be compared with the fact that he himself was only counted as not deceitful by grace; for he was very deceitful regarding Uriah. But the Psalm has application to Hezekiah's desire for the tongue of Rabshakeh to be destroyed, and the exiles likewise had a whole array of possible people to sing this about, the likes of Sanballat and Haman. We note that the tongue is personified as a person; for we are our words, and by them we reflect who we really are and shall therefore be judged by them, as the Lord Jesus taught.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the Hezekiah context, this was fulfilled by the destruction of the Assyrians outside the walls of Jerusalem. It was done by a single Angel, perhaps "the mighty [one]" in view. "Coals of juniper" were used to make charcoal; the idea is 'the hottest fire'. However the grammar and flow of the argument may mean that this verse describes the "deceitful tongue" of :3; and indeed James says that the tongue is as a fire (<a href='B:660 3:6'>Jas 3:6</a>). It was God's tongue which was as a devouring fire upon the Assyrians of Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:290 30:27'>Isa 30:27</a>); so we have the picture of the fiery tongue being its own condemnation, in fire from Yahweh. In the context of David, he had lamented that the outlaws with whom he lived and the house of Saul had tongues as sharp arrows (<a href='B:230 57:4'>Psa 57:4</a>; <a href='B:230 64:3'>Psa 64:3</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Kedar was the second son of Ishmael (<a href='B:10 25:13'>Gen 25:13</a>), one of the wild roaming tribes whose hand was against every man (<a href='B:10 16:13'>Gen 16:13</a>). Perhaps there was a time when fleeing from Saul when David had to live amongst them, and he longs to be back in Zion. Or perhaps he simply means that he has to live among hostile and barbarous people, who are characterized as the wild Kedar and Meshech. The tribe of Meshech was known to David, as a neighbouring people who hated peace (:6). It can therefore scarcely refer to Moscow, as some insist.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul has had her dwelling too long with him who hates peace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The individual who hated peace was likened to the war like (:7) and aggressive wild tribes of Kedar and Meshech. The "him" becomes "they" in :7, so perhaps the peace hater is a personification of the various groups opposed to those using the Psalm in whatever context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could apply to how Hezekiah sought to make peace with the Assyrians. But he gave them the gold of the temple for that peace treaty which they broke; but here he appears to whitewash that lack of faith as his love for peace. We can understand the initial reference to David, who truly sought to live at peace with Saul. And perhaps it has application to the returned exiles and their conflicts with the local Samaritans.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The hills" may be an intensive plural referring to the great hill of mount Zion. But the hills were associated with idolatry and the high places. David and subsequent users of the Psalm may have meant that they looked not to the hills but to Yahweh, the creator of heaven and earth (:2).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So often, the fact Yahweh is creator is presented as a reason to trust Him for help. To minimize His creative power through faithless scientific theory simply takes away our grounds for personal faith:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will not allow your foot to be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that the restoration was to be permanent, and never again would Israel go into captivity and have to leave Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who keeps you will not slumber-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Note the progression from "me" (:1,2) to Israel (:3-5). David saw his sufferings as being bound up with those of Israel; those who hated him hated Zion, those who blessed him blessed Zion, and God's salvation of Israel was being expressed through God's deliverance of him in the daily vicissitudes of life; as God had chosen Zion, so He had David His servant; David's joy was Zion's joy, and her exaltation would be David's&nbsp; (<a href='B:230 51:18'>Psa 51:18</a>; <a href='B:230 69:35'>Psa 69:35</a>; <a href='B:230 87:2'>Psa 87:2</a>; <a href='B:230 106:5'>Psa 106:5</a>; <a href='B:230 121:3-4'>Psa 121:3-4</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>; <a href='B:230 128:5'>Psa 128:5</a>; <a href='B:230 146:10'>Psa 146:10</a>; <a href='B:230 149:2'>Psa 149:2</a>). This is how we are to make sense of suffering- by understanding that it plays a role in the salvation of others, and is part of a wider nexus of Divine operation. We suffer so that we may be able to minister the comfort we receive to others (<a href='B:540 1:4'>2Co 1:4</a>). Job likewise came to realize that his sufferings were not so much for his personal maturing, but for the teaching and salvation of the friends.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God had allowed the feet of His people to be moved out of their land, but the intention was that this was to be temporary, and their return would be a witness to the Gentiles amongst whom they lived- leading them to join in and also come to Zion in penitence and faith. And then He would not again allow their feet to be moved from their land (s:w. <a href='B:230 66:9'>Psa 66:9</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The statement that God will not "rest" for Zion's sake (<a href='B:290 62:1'>Isa 62:1</a>) must be understood in the context of the faithful at that time urging God not to "be still" [same Hebrew word translated "rest"] for His people (<a href='B:230 83:1'>Psa 83:1</a>; <a href='B:290 64:12'>Isa 64:12</a>). This is an allusion to Boaz not being at rest until he had redeemed Ruth and Naomi. God is not at rest, He is not distant from us; and yet His people in Babylon felt that He was. It's no wonder that we are tempted to feel the same. Yet we must give <a href='B:290 62:1'>Isa 62:1</a> it's full weight- God is answering the complaint of His people by stating that no, He will never rest for them. In this same context we read that He that keeps Israel will "neither slumber nor sleep" (<a href='B:230 121:4'>Psa 121:4</a>). The fact that God will never 'hold His peace' for His people's sake (<a href='B:290 62:1'>Isa 62:1</a>) means that we should likewise not 'hold our peace' for them (the same Hebrew is used in <a href='B:290 62:6'>Isa 62:6</a>). In our prayers for them, we are to give God no rest (<a href='B:290 62:7'>Isa 62:7</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note that the confident statement that Yahweh doesn't slumber nor sleep for His people was disavowed by the exiles, and perhaps by David too in his low moments in <a href='B:230 44:23'>Psa 44:23</a>: "Wake up! Why do You sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever". To accuse God of sleeping seems as inappropriate as the disciples' demand for the Lord Jesus to awake from sleep because His apparent sleeping showed that He didn't care that they perished (<a href='B:480 4:38'>Mar 4:38</a>). He did of course care for their perishing. He gave His life for that.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is your keeper, Yahweh is your shade on your right hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. “The Lord is thy keeper</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>the sun shall not smite thee by day</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>” (<a href='B:230 121:5-6'>Psa 121:5-6</a>)- reference to Israel’s exodus from Egypt, but also to God’s miraculous keeping them on the desert journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, without a guard from the Babylonian authorities.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The exiles were comforted that as the pillar of cloud and fire protected Israel on their journey to the promised land, so God would be with them in returning from exile. Not being smitten by day nor night is the language of <a href='B:230 91:6'>Psa 91:6</a> [see note there]. They were to follow the path intended for Joshua, and earnestly believe they could participate in the restored kingdom of God. There is allusion to the belief that there was some demonic power in the moon; hence <a href='B:230 91:6'>Psa 91:6</a> LXX "from ruin and the demon of the midday". Whatever belief in demons the people held, the simple truth was that God destroyed the wilderness generation; all was under His absolute control. There is no radical evil in the cosmos:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is as in <a href='B:230 105:39'>Psa 105:39</a> to how God "spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night" to Israel leaving Egypt. And He would have done the same to the exiles leaving Babylon. The sensitivity of God is revealed here. The cloud kept the heat of the sun off them in the day time, and the fire kept them warm at night when the temperatures plunged in the desert. This same care was potentially available to the exiles; but most didn't even want to make the journey, and remained in Babylon. These promises are therefore reapplied to the new Israel (<a href='B:730 7:16'>Rev 7:16</a>), As Yahweh provided a pillar of fire to give light in the night to His people in the wilderness, so Israel were to arrange for a fire to be burning throughout the night in the tabernacle. They were to give light in response to God’s giving light to them</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussd on :6, the "evil" may refer to their wrong understandings of cosmic evil. The Lord Jesus never actually stated that demons don't exist; rather did His miracles demonstrate that God was so far superior to their power, that effectively they didn't. And the same logic is being used here.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that the regular pilgrimages to Zion to the keep the feasts (cp. <a href='B:230 122:1'>Psa 122:1</a>), going out and coming in, were envisaged as now being eternally established. We note "going out and coming in", and not the other way around. The implication is that Zion was to be the actual abode of the worshipper, even if he only came in and out for a brief period three times / year.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From this time forth and forever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could imply that "forever", eternity, was seen as beginning with the coming in to Zion. The restoration of the exiles could potentially have been the time of the reestablishment of God's Kingdom on earth; but that possiblity was precluded by Israel's lack of faith and repentance. We can begin living the eternal life now, in that we can now act as we shall eternally. We shall be eternally appreciating, trusting, loving and praising God's Name, just as He keeps us noth now and eternally- and we can begin those experiences with Him right now. This is an Old Testament form (also in <a href='B:230 113:2'>Psa 113:2</a>; <a href='B:230 115:18'>Psa 115:18</a>; <a href='B:230 121:8'>Psa 121:8</a>; <a href='B:230 125:2'>Psa 125:2</a>; <a href='B:230 131:3'>Psa 131:3</a>) of the Lord's teaching as recorded in John's Gospel, that we can have and live the eternal life right now. We have that life not in the sense that we shall never die, but in that we can begin living and being now as we shall eternally live and be.</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents. By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord” (<a href='B:230 122:1'>Psa 122:1</a>)- the feelings of a faithful Jew in Babylon responding to Cyrus’ decree. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (<a href='B:230 122:6'>Psa 122:6</a>)- the faithful in Babylon praying for Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I was glad when they said to me, Let’s go up to Yahweh’s house!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may have begun as David's prophetic anticipation of the day when the temple would be built, and he would be invited to go up there in worship- implying his faith in bodily resurrection, seeing he had been told that such a temple would not be built in his lifetime. But the Psalm is obviously used in hope that the temple would be restored and the exiles with joy would receive the invitation to "go up" there. But the reality was so different; the majority of them refused to "go up" when invited to by Cyrus, preferring exile in opulent Persia. And so these things are reapplied to a new Israel and a new temple:&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our feet shall stand within your gates, Jerusalem-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the more pertinent to the exiles when we recall that the gates of Jerusalem were totally broken down.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Jerusalem, that is built as a city that is compact together-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we recall that at the time of the exiles, Jerusalem was not at all "built" but was in ruins. The exiles were invited to return and build it into a compact city, rather than a broken down set of ruins. "Compact together" could be translated to the effect that it was built in fellowship together, perhaps referring to the unity of the builders and the unity to be found within it. But the majority turned down the invitation and remained in Persia / Babylon; and the exiles were anything but united, as the records in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai-Malachi make clear. These things therefore come ultimately true in the things of the new Jerusalem which the New Testament speaks of.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>where the tribes go up, even Yah’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to the name of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that the true Israel go up to keep the feasts at the sanctuary. The fact most of the exiles didn't want to "go up" therefore precluded them from being the true Israel. The Psalm had its historical origin in David's longing to be able to get to the sanctuary to keep the feasts (<a href='B:230 42:2'>Psa 42:2</a> etc:). This was to be the longing of the exiles to return to Zion; but generally, they preferred to remain in exile.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of David’s house-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was a Psalm by David, originally (:1). He looked for the day when his throne would be established in Jerusalem, replacing the throne of Saul. "Thrones" may be an intensive plural for the one great throne- that of David, which would also be the time of judgment on all those who had opposed him. This will finally be fulfilled in the reestablishment of David's throne, when the Lord Jesus returns to Jerusalem. And that throne will also be the throne of His judgment, which will also be in Jerusalem (rather than in Sinai, as some curiously believe):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; those who love you will prosper-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Peace was impossible for Jerusalem until Judah repented (<a href='B:300 4:10'>Jer 4:10</a>; <a href='B:330 13:16'>Eze 13:16</a>). "Peace" in the Bible is often 'peace with God'. The desire was therefore for the day to come when Judah would repent, and the restoration prophecies of Judah's peace would come true. Peace will only finally go forth from Jerusalem when the latter day invaders are destroyed and the Lord Jesus establishes His Kingdom there (<a href='B:450 9:10'>Zec 9:10</a> s:w:).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was to be in contrast with how the enemies of Zion apparently prospered in her destruction (s:w. <a href='B:310 1:5'>Lam 1:5</a>). This is a prayer that the current situation will be inverted. Zion's destruction had been because "prosperity" had led them to turn away from their God (s:w. <a href='B:300 22:21'>Jer 22:21</a>; <a href='B:330 16:49'>Eze 16:49</a>). The prayer was that prosperity would come without the tendency to unspirituality which it brings in a secular sense:&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my brothers’ and companions’ sakes I will now say, Peace be within you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The returning exiles were to be aware that their desire for the peace of Jerusalem, the fulfilment of the restoration prophecies and the end of the 70 year exile, were not to be simply for their own sake; but for the sake of their distant brothers and also their companions with them on the journey. We likewise must not wish our place in the Kingdom or the coming of that Kingdom purely for our own sakes; but for that of the wider community. </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God, I will seek your good- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>'Seeking the good' of Jerusalem is exactly the phrase used in the context of the restoration in <a href='B:160 2:10'>Neh 2:10</a>. And in response, God would 'seek the good' of all who sought the good of Jerusalem (s:w. <a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>). The idea may be that the returning exiles were to seek the good of their brethren (:8) for the sake of the restored Kingdom / house of God. "The good" of both their brethren and the Kingdom of God was one and the same- the restored Kingdom to the glory of Yahweh.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To You I do lift up my eyes, You who sit in the heavens-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Jehoshaphat's prayer for deliverance includes the words "our eyes are upon thee" (<a href='B:140 20:12'>2Ch 20:12</a>), which is quoted in <a href='B:230 123:1-2'>Psa 123:1-2</a> - one of the Songs of Degrees written against the background of the Assyrian invasion, pleading for deliverance by God:&nbsp;There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. Our eye is upon Him (<a href='B:230 25:5'>Psa 25:5</a>; <a href='B:230 69:3'>Psa 69:3</a>; <a href='B:230 123:2'>Psa 123:2</a>), as His eye is upon us (<a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>; <a href='B:230 33:18'>Psa 33:18</a>). The Lord stresses, with apparently needless repetition, that to the man who responds to His word, "I will sup with him and he with me" (<a href='B:730 3:20'>Rev 3:20</a>). There may be the implication that the Psalmist looks to the God who is in the "heavens", a term sometimes used as a metaphor for the temple or sanctuary- and not to any idol. See on :2.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to Yahweh our God until He has mercy on us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that the Psalmist considers Yahweh as lord or master- the very meaning of the term 'baal'; because he looks to Yahweh and not to any of the Baals. See on :1.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. “As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> so our eyes look unto the Lord</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> until he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>for we are exceedingly filled with contempt</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>with the scorning of those that are at ease” (<a href='B:230 123:2-4'>Psa 123:2-4</a>)- the faithful by the rivers of Babylon praying for the captivity to end.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:450 1:12'>Zec 1:12</a> has the Angel representing the exiles asking God to "have mercy" on the exiles and bring about the restoration of the Kingdom. Here, we have the exiles themselves praying thIsa. It's as if their representative Angel was representing them before Yahweh in the court of heaven. But the reality was that few of them really wanted this "mercy" and were quite happy with the life in Babylon / Persia.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For "have mercy", see on :2. As the book of Esther makes clear, the exiles lived comfortable lives in Babylon / Persia, with Jews in leading positions. It was only the spiritually minded who considered life there to be in "contempt"; just as the restoration prophecies of Isaiah present Babylon as a place of suffering and imprisonment after the pattern of Israel's sufferings in Egypt, all of which was only true on a spiritual level.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :3, this pain at the "scoffing" was only felt by the spiritually minded amongst the exiles. There is ample evidence in Ezekiel and also <a href='B:440 1:2'>Hag 1:2</a> that the exiles were at ease in exile and were the ones scoffing at the restoration prophecies as being unlikely now of any fulfilment. Those "who are at ease" is the term used of those amongst God's people who were at ease in sinful lives (<a href='B:370 6:1'>Amo 6:1</a>).</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents. By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms originally written by David are reappropriated to the exiles, and used at the restoration. For the "ascent" in view is that to Zion. Worshippers are spoken of as 'going up' to Zion. Before then it was probably used by Hezekiah to glory in the victory over the Assyrians, which was associated with the ascent and descent of the sun on his sundial. For his sickness was at the same time as the Assyrian destruction.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, let Israel now say-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is very much the spirit of David personally in <a href='B:230 94:17'>Psa 94:17</a>: "Unless Yahweh had been my help, my soul would have soon been silenced". But the exiles were to follow the path of David, in devotion to God's word, repentance and thence restoration.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>if it had not been Yahweh who was on our side when men rose up against us-</p><h2>The rising up of men is developed into the rising up of flood waters against God's people (:4,5). These flood waters represented the Assyrians at the time of Hezekiah, and then later all the Gentile enemies of Israel. But the first reference was to the way that Saul "rose up" against David (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:29'>1Sa 25:29</a>).</h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference may be to Ahithophel's plan to swallow up David at the time of Absalom's rebellion (<a href='B:100 17:12'>2Sa 17:12</a>; <a href='B:100 17:16'>2Sa 17:16</a> s:w:). David's prayer of <a href='B:230 35:25'>Psa 35:25</a>; <a href='B:230 69:15'>Psa 69:15</a>; <a href='B:230 124:3'>Psa 124:3</a> not to be swallowed up / destroyed was answered, but he was devastated at the answer- for it meant the death of Saul [which he lamented] and then later of his son Absalom. Again David has Job in mind, who had his 'brethren' arguing that he should be swallowed up / destroyed without cause (<a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a> s:w:). But being swallowed alive was the fate of the apostate amongst Israel in the wilderness (s:w. <a href='B:40 16:30'>Num 16:30</a>). So the idea may be that God's people were saved from rightful condemnation- by Divine grace.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference in the Hezekiah context is to the waters of the Assyrians flooding the whole of Judah and coming up to the neck of those in Jerusalem (<a href='B:290 8:8'>Isa 8:8</a>). The language of floods overwhelming a man is used by David about his various persecutions.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>then the proud waters would have gone over our soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note that the Assyrians are characterized by pride. We might rather have stressed their aggression or idolatry. But God is so sensitive to pride, that this is the lead sin perceived in them.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be Yahweh, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The imagery changes from overflowing waters, to a beast of prey with teeth which were about to close upon God's people. This was clearly the case when the Assyrian beast encircled Jerusalem and appeared to be moments away from sinking teeth into the prey. This may look forward to the deliverance from the latter day Assyrian around Jerusalem, by the return of the Lord Jesus to earth to save His repentant people.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Often David likens his enemies' plans to catch him as snares, gins etc. set for birds (e:g. <a href='B:230 84:3'>Psa 84:3</a>; <a href='B:230 102:6'>Psa 102:6</a>; Psalms 124; Psalms 7; <a href='B:230 140:5'>Psa 140:5</a>)- all the language of hunting birds. He had probably done plenty of this as a youngster caring for the sheep, and the influence of those formative years remained. The Babylonian captivity was "the snare of the fowler" just as much as were the judgments for sin which came upon the wilderness generation, from which Joshua was delivered (<a href='B:230 91:3'>Psa 91:3</a>). The exiles were intended to follow Joshua's example. The Hezekiah reference is clear- Jerusalem was surrounded by the snare of the Assyrian encirclement, but this was broken in a moment by the Angel destroying their army in a moment.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our help is in the name of Yahweh, who made heaven and earth- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again, God's power as creator is used as an encouragement to believe that the God who created all can quite easily save His people from any predicament, no matter how humanly impossible. Any attempt to rationalize or dilute His creative power at the beginning will have negative implications for our faith in His abilities in our lives today.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion which can’t be moved but remains forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be moved" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). Solomon didn't learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father's mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"He will never be shaken" is spoken in <a href='B:230 112:6'>Psa 112:6</a> in the context of the outcome of the final judgment. Being unmoved or never shaken is a major theme of the Psalms of David. Human beings naturally seek for stability, but look for it in the wrong places, imagining that their idols shall never be shaken (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:20'>Isa 40:20</a>; <a href='B:290 41:7'>Isa 41:7</a>). It is only the receipt of eternal salvation at the last day which means we shall never be moved; that is the only ultimate stability (<a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a> s:w:). Their stability will be associated with that of God's eternal Kingdom to be centered upon Zion (s:w. <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). For in secular life under the sun, the righteous do suffer and their lives are "shaken". Solomon's statements that the righteous shall never be shaken / moved (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>; <a href='B:240 12:3'>Pro 12:3</a>) are only ultimately true in this sense; but whether he spoke them with that understanding is debatable:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just a very small amount of real faith during this life will enable us to move "this mountain", surely referring to Mount Zion in the immediate context (<a href='B:470 17:20'>Mat 17:20</a>). The idea of Mount Zion being moved sends the mind to <a href='B:450 14:4-5'>Zec 14:4-5</a>, describing how Mount Zion will be moved at the Lord's return; and also to <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>, which speaks of how they who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be removed; and yet Christ said we will remove it by prayer. The point of these allusions is surely to show that real faith will bring about the coming of the Kingdom, which is a totally super-human achievement; the unshakeableness of Mount Zion is likened to the solidity of true faith. The Lord's point seems to be that if we truly believe, then the coming of the Kingdom will be brought about by our faith; the outcome of our faith in this life will be seen in the Kingdom. But what our faith will achieve in the Kingdom will be hugely out of proportion to what&nbsp; it really is now. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so Yahweh surrounds His people from this time forth and forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The hills around Jerusalem are not huge mountains. They are small hills, and this is the picture of God's protection; not hugely visible, but there. But the mountains around Jerusalem became the "high places" of idolatry (<a href='B:110 11:7'>1Ki 11:7</a>; <a href='B:120 23:13'>2Ki 23:13</a>; <a href='B:140 21:11'>2Ch 21:11</a>); what should have been the symbols of Yahweh's protection became perverted.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We can begin living the eternal life now, in that we can now act as we shall eternally. We shall be eternally appreciating, trusting, loving and praising God's Name- and we can begin that now. This is an Old Testament form (also in <a href='B:230 113:2'>Psa 113:2</a>; <a href='B:230 115:18'>Psa 115:18</a>; <a href='B:230 121:8'>Psa 121:8</a>; <a href='B:230 125:2'>Psa 125:2</a>; <a href='B:230 131:3'>Psa 131:3</a>) of the Lord's teaching as recorded in John's Gospel, that we can have and live the eternal life right now. We have that life not in the sense that we shall never die, but in that we can begin living and being now as we shall eternally live and be.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the sceptre of wickedness won’t remain over the allotment of the righteous; so that the righteous won’t put forth their hands to do evil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whatever the primary reference of this Psalm, it is a reworking of David's feelings when persecuted by Saul and likewise on the run from him. For circumstances repeat in our lives, and it would be natural for David to reconsider Psalms written at the time of one exile and apply them to another, just as these Psalms were also used for others in their times of exile. "Wickedness" is the word used about Saul's persecution in <a href='B:90 24:13'>1Sa 24:13</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of Hezekiah and then later the Babylonians, the "lot" (AV) of the righteous was Jerusalem or the land of promise, which was originally split into lots (Joshua 18). The rod of wickedness would not lead God's people into sin. This is the principle of <a href='B:530 10:13'>1Co 10:13</a>, that sin is not inevitable, and a way of escape will always be made. This is a very powerful motivation in the peak intensities of temptation; we are not forced to sin by situations.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Do good, Yahweh, to those who are good, to those who are upright in their hearts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:520 6:19'>Rom 6:19</a> speaks of how the ever increasing downward spiral of obedience to sin is turned round at baptism, so that we begin an upward spiral of obedience to righteousness. God does good unto those that are good, but leads those who turn aside even further astray (<a href='B:230 125:4-5'>Psa 125:4-5</a>). Those who are "[born] of God" are able to hear and understand God's words (<a href='B:500 8:47'>Joh 8:47</a>)- and baptism is surely how we are born of God (<a href='B:500 3:3-5'>Joh 3:3-5</a>). This seems to open up the possibility of yet higher growth once we are baptized- it's all an upward spiral, like any functional relationship.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4, this is the downside of :4. God can "lead into temptation" [for we pray that He will not do so to us], further down the downward spiral; if we ourselves turn aside. The idea of being "lead away" is of captivity; this is an acceptance that the captivity had been an appropriate judgment, as Israel had indeed turned aside (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:15'>Isa 30:15</a>; <a href='B:370 5:12'>Amo 5:12</a> and often). And Ezekiel records how the exiles struggled with thIsa. The true "Israel" of God who would have "peace" were those who recognized this and yet returned, both to their God and to Zion. Sadly the exiles didn't wish to do thIsa.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion, we were like those who dream-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "We became as comforted ones". The allusion is to the prophecies of later Isaiah, especially Isaiah 40, announcing "comfort" to "My people", the returning exiles. But they for the most part refused that comfort. So we are reading here of prophetic hope, which didn't come fully true at the time, although those prophecies were reapplied to the "comfort" announced by John the Baptist in the work of the Lord Jesus. We note it was Yahweh who "turned back" (Heb:) the exiles; the term refers to both repentance and literally returning to the land. But most of the exiles refused to make use of the potential repentance given them.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. “The Lord brought back those that returned to Zion” (<a href='B:230 126:1'>Psa 126:1</a> RVmg:) is obviously relevant to the exiles returning. They are described as going forth into captivity weeping but bearing previous seed, and now returning home with the sheaves (<a href='B:230 126:6'>Psa 126:6</a>). This could be a reference to their children whom they had taken with them 70 years previously returning; or it could also imply that there had been a spiritual growth and fruition during the captivity. At least, this was what God had intended.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, Yahweh has done great things for them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The past tenses here shouldn't be read as meaning that this Psalm was the reflection of the returned exiles. For the relatively few who did return did so in fear, unbelief and uncertainty, to be greeted by famine and troubles. Rather is this the Psalmist believing by faith that 'the future is now', seeing ahead with the eye of faith to how things would be at the restoration, and rejoicing in it. The intention of the restoration was so that the Gentile nations would recognize Yahweh's great work for His people, with the result that they too turned to Him. This didn't happen at the restoration. Yahweh did do great things for His people, but they refused to respond. The same phrase is found in <a href='B:290 1:2'>Isa 1:2</a>, where Yahweh "nourished" or 'did great things' for His people "and they rebelled against Me". So these things will finally come true in the last day, when Yahweh again will do "great things" for the land at the return of the Lord Jesus (s:w. <a href='B:360 2:21'>Joe 2:21</a>). </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh has done great things for us, and we are glad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, this is the 'prophetic perfect' tense, speaking from God's perspective, of the future as if it has already happened. Such was the Psalmist's faith that he and his community were full of joy even at the prospect of this great but yet future salvation.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Restore our fortunes again, Yahweh, like the streams in the Negev-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that the streams appeared suddenly in the dry riverbeds, or that they would run in one direction in the sand of the Negev and just as easily in the opposite direction a short time later. This was the speed with which the Psalmist is praying for the path of Judah into exile to be reversed, with them returning along the same tracks they took into exile. This sudden reversal of fortunes was given in the decree of Cyrus. But the majority of God's people didn't want to go in the paths opened up for them.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who sow in tears will reap in joy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This 'sowing' was the 'going out' from Judah and Jerusalem in captivity of :6. That tragic exile was in fact a sowing, potentially anyway, which would rise up in a harvest of joy at the restoration. This was the prophetic intention. But the reality was that the majority of the exiles didn't want to return, neither did the seed of the prophetic word achieve the intended harvest. For they were stony, bad ground and unresponsive to the word of prophetic hope. The potential application in Hezekiah's time was recorded in 1Kings 19:29, where joyful reaping was to be a sign to the people. This would only happen if Judah sowed in righteousness; and then they would reap mercy (<a href='B:350 10:12'>Hos 10:12</a> s:w:). This didn't come true at the restoration.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, will certainly come again with joy carrying his sheaves- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>“Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of” children (<a href='B:230 127:5'>Psa 127:5</a>) is surely to be connected with <a href='B:230 126:6'>Psa 126:6</a>, where the sower [the preacher] returns with joy, “bringing his sheaves [converts] with him”:&nbsp;In the first context, the sheaves refer to the reborn children of Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems that God intended the 70 years in Babylon to be the time when the Jews would come to a fullness of repentance whereby they would be able to return, rebuild the temple, and usher in a Messianic Kingdom. <a href='B:230 126:1'>Psa 126:1</a>; <a href='B:230 126:6'>Psa 126:6</a> speak of how the Lord would bring back the returnees to Zion (RVmg:), and thereby he who went forth into captivity weeping, bearing the precious seed of the next generation as little children, would in that sense return to Zion with joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Jeremiah 24 speaks as if the “good figs” were to be those who went to Babylon and through that experience there became “good figs”. Micah speaks of the same process. Zion was to be plowed and Jerusalem become heaps, which happened in the Babylonian invasion. But then afterwards- 70 years afterwards- the temple was to be rebuilt, “the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains” (<a href='B:400 3:12'>Mic 3:12</a>; <a href='B:400 4:1'>Mic 4:1</a>). “In that day</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather that has been driven out</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> and I will make her that was cast off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem”. A Messianic Kingdom could then have come. This whole situation would be brought to pass because the daughter of Zion was to “go forth out of the city” of Jerusalem “and come even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered [RV rescued]: there shall the Lord redeem thee” (<a href='B:400 4:10'>Mic 4:10</a>). How was the travailing daughter of Zion to be delivered / rescued in Babylon after having been taken captive there from Jerusalem by the Babylonians? Surely in that there, God intended a spiritual revival of the people, there they would hear Ezekiel’s appeal to repent, which if responded&nbsp; to would enable them to build the temple which he had described (<a href='B:330 43:10-11'>Eze 43:10-11</a>) and thus usher in a Messianic Kingdom:&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the reality was that the exiles didn't repent, and most remained in Babylon rather than returning to Zion. The idea of the restored Kingdom therefore became reapplied to the return of the Lord Jesus to earth (<a href='B:510 1:6'>Act 1:6</a>).</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents. By Solomon-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ecclesiastes is so packed with contradictions. Solomon knew and perceived God’s truth, and yet felt it meant nothing to him personally. Thus he teaches truth in Ecclesiastes, but intersperses it with his own personal depression and sense that none of it really has any meaning for him personally. The themes of labour, vanity, sleep and children which are found in Ecclesiastes all occur in Psalms 127, a Psalm of or for Solomon- where the message is clearly given that unless the Lord builds the temple, all this labour is in vain. And yet knowing this Solomon did labour for it so hard, and then came to the conclusion that it was indeed in vain. If only he had believed the words he earlier composed and sung in Psalms 127, he needn’t have had to come to that sad conclusion:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labour in vain who build it. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain-</p><h2>The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. Psalms 127 has obvious relevance too: “Except the Lord build the house [the temple], they labour in vain that build it</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> the watchman [cp. Nehemiah placing watchmen on the rebuilt walls] waketh but in vain</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late [cp:&nbsp; working so hard on the wall they had no time to even change their clothes]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> they shall speak with their enemies in the gate” [cp. Nehemiah talking to the Arab traders and enemies in the rebuilt gate of Jerusalem, and setting watches over the city].</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps the Psalm originated in Solomon's reflections as he began building the temple, and was then rewritten and reapplied to the exiles rebuilding it. More likely it is God's inspired advice to him as he began the building work. To build a house and not live in it was a curse for breaking the covenant (<a href='B:50 28:30'>Deu 28:30</a>; <a href='B:430 1:13'>Zep 1:13</a>), and this was to be the curse if the house of the temple was built but not inhabited by the shekinah glory. And this is indeed how it worked out; the temple was rebuilt, but the glory didn't return to it as foreseen in Ezekiel's visions of Ezekiel 40-48, because the exiles weren't obedient to that vision.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But God didn't really want a physical house built for Him; rather had He promised to build up the house or seed of David (<a href='B:100 7:27'>2Sa 7:27</a> s:w:). And this is why this Psalm goes on in :3-5 to say that God will build up the family / house of the faithful. Solomon correctly perceived all this, as noted on :1, and yet insisted on going ahead with the grandiose building program which was not really what God wanted. &nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil; for He gives sleep to His beloved ones-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 132:4'>Psa 132:4</a>&nbsp; "I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids" therefore appears to be a studied disregard for the revelation of <a href='B:230 127:2'>Psa 127:2</a>, which urges David and his seed not to stay up late planning to build a physical temple, but to accept sleep from God and trust Him to build him a house in the sense of a Messianic seed and family / kingdom.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David seems to have recognized that the building of the temple was conditional on Solomon's spirituality, but he overlooked this in his enthusiasm for Solomon to be the Messiah. He tells Solomon to show himself a man (<a href='B:110 2:2'>1Ki 2:2</a>), and goes on in v. 4 to speak of how “a man” would eternally reign on his Messianic throne. He was encouraging Solomon to be and act like Messiah. Psalms 127 is "For Solomon" (v:2 "beloved" = Heb. Jedidiah), and warns him that his labour for the temple will be in vain unless God&nbsp; builds it. The Psalm basically says that God will build Solomon a house in the sense of a family centred in the beloved seed who would die [“sleep”] to enable it; and therefore Solomon should not be so sweating himself day and night to build God a house / temple. This is the very message which God had given David earlier. David and Solomon evidently shelved their knowledge of the fact that Heaven is God's dwelling place.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But more than this; the idea may be that instead of building the temple / house for Yahweh, Solomon is advised to let Yahweh build up his house / family as the seed of David (<a href='B:230 127:3-5'>Psa 127:3-5</a>). God would give sleep to the beloved, "Jedidiah", Solomon, and he would awake and find his house / seed built for him by God- rather than Solomon frantically building a house for God. The same phrase is only used of Solomon not giving sleep to his eyes in his mad addiction to works (<a href='B:240 6:4'>Pro 6:4</a>; <a href='B:250 8:16'>Ecc 8:16</a>). Psalms 127 was "for Solomon" rather than necessarily "by" him. And it seems he refused the offer of having his house / seed built up for him, but rather chose to try to build God a house. Hence LXX "It is vain for you to rise early: ye rise up after resting, ye that eat the bread of grief; while he gives sleep to his beloved".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It could be that initially, Psalms 127 was David’s Psalm for Solomon written at the very end of his life; he tells Solomon that unless God builds this house / temple, it will all be “in vain” and Solomon will but eat the bread of sorrows, labouring hard all his days for nothing. And this is very much the picture of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. David said that such labour in vain was made unnecessary by the fact that “So he giveth his beloved sleep” (<a href='B:230 127:2'>Psa 127:2</a>). ‘David’ means ‘beloved’, and it could be that David was gently trying to focus Solomon’s attention on the future David who would be made to sleep / due by the Father, in order to build the real house. &nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is His reward-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are God's heritage, His reward / wages (Heb:), His recompense for all His labour for us (<a href='B:230 127:3'>Psa 127:3</a> Heb:). "Heritage" is literally "possession". Our children are HIsa. This development of the theme of God given children is continuing the theme raised in :1. God didn't really want a physical house built for Him; rather had He promised to build up the house or seed of David (:1 = <a href='B:100 7:27'>2Sa 7:27</a> s:w:). See on :2. And this is why this Psalm goes on now in :3-5 to say that God will build up the family / house of the faithful. Solomon correctly perceived all this, as noted on :1, and yet insisted on going ahead with the grandiose building program which was not really what God wanted.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "As arrows in the hand of a mighty man; so are the children of those who were outcasts". The reference is clearly to the restoration of the children of Zion after the restoration. Their children were to inherit the Kingdom- potentially. This scenario was precluded by the impenitence and disobedience of the exiles and their intermarriages:&nbsp;I suggested on :1-3 that Solomon was initially being told to allow God to build up his house / seed whilst he "slept", unable to do any works, rather than him building a house for God. But he refused this, not wanting to see the spiritual side of things, but rather only the external and material, centered around his own works. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they won’t be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>“Happy is the man that has his quiver full of” children is surely to be connected with <a href='B:230 126:6'>Psa 126:6</a>, where the sower [the preacher] returns with joy, “bringing his sheaves [converts] with him”:&nbsp;&nbsp;In the restoration context, these were to be the children of Zion, the new generation of returned exiles who would rise to govern a Messianic kingdom which would dominate the peoples who were their former enemies. But instead they allowed their enemies in through the gates, Tobiah even having his own chamber in the temple, and they intermarried. The fulfilment of the Abrahamic promises of possessing the gate of their enemies would only come about by God building up the house / seed of David (see on :1-3). But Solomon thought he could bring it about in his own strength by building a temple. We see here the contrast between God's grace and work for men, and man's desire to trust in his own works and thereby spurn God's grace and potential activity.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is each one who fears Yahweh, who walks in His ways-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Each one" reminds the exiles, and all of us, that our response to His call is not just a group experience; each is required to personally believe the call to the restored Kingdom in Zion. God's "ways" were particularly the ways to Zion which the repentant exiles were intended to walk, inviting repentant Gentiles to join them on the journey (<a href='B:290 2:3'>Isa 2:3</a>; <a href='B:300 50:5'>Jer 50:5</a>). </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For you will eat the labour of your hands; you will be happy, and it will be well with you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Eating the labour of the hands, rather than having it taken away by invaders (<a href='B:50 28:33'>Deu 28:33</a>) like the Babylonians (<a href='B:300 3:24'>Jer 3:24</a>), was a blessing for obedience to the covenant. But this didn't happen as envisaged for those who returned; the work of their hands was consumed by drought (s:w. <a href='B:440 1:11'>Hag 1:11</a>) because they were not repentant and not truly seeking the restoration of Zion.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house; your children like olive plants around your table-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This focus upon children in these Psalms is because (as explained throughout Psalms 127), God wished to build the seed / house of His people, rather than having a literal house built for Him. See on :6. A explained on :2 and :4, the impenitence of the exiles meant that these things didn't come true as was potentially possible, and so they were given a different fulfilment in the fruitfulness of the Lord Jesus and His seed.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, these things didn't come true for the returning exiles as was potentially possible. And so the prophecies were reapplied to the things of the Lord Jesus. The "man" is the Lord Jesus; we are the children He has been given (<a href='B:290 8:18'>Isa 8:18</a>). Israel, His wife like a vine, will be fruitful in the Kingdom (this is prophesied several times), and we are promised to sit round his table (<a href='B:490 22:30'>Luk 22:30</a>). Israel in the Kingdom will be the vine that blossoms and buds, and fills the face of the world with spiritual fruit (<a href='B:290 27:6'>Isa 27:6</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>May Yahweh bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The blessing of Yahweh coming out of Zion was what was possible in the restored Kingdom of God; it would be associated with Yahweh Himself dwelling in Zion (<a href='B:230 134:3'>Psa 134:3</a>; <a href='B:230 135:21'>Psa 135:21</a>). This would be the time when the temple vision of Ezekiel 40-48 was obeyed by the exiles, and the city called Yahweh Shammah, "Yahweh is there". But at the time of the exiles' return, it was precluded by their impenitence and refusal to build the temple and city according to the commands of Ezekiel 40-48, and the fact the majority refused to participate in the program and remained in Persia / Babylon.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I discussed throughout Psalms 127 that God wished all interested in building Him a house to realize that this wasn't quite what he wanted. Rather He wanted to build up the seed of David. Peace and blessing would come in the form of generations of David's seed being eternally established in Zion; but this was to be by God's work, and not the result of literally building or rebuilding a temple.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The returning exiles were to remember their national afflictions. And yet the generation of exiles who returned hadn't physically suffered much in exile; the majority preferred to remain there rather than return to Zion, and the book of Esther gives the impression of a prosperous, popular community. The afflictions which were to be the "push" factors in leading them back to Zion were therefore only spiritually perceived; Isaiah presents Babylon as a prison house of darkness, but that was only true in spiritual terms.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>many times they have afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea of this Psalm is that those who had "afflicted" Israel would now be judged (:5-8). This was intended to come about at the time the exiles returned to Zion and the Kingdom of God was restored. Hezekiah failed to realize this potential, and the exiles who returned likewise. The punishment of those who "afflicted" God's people was only to come "If you shall indeed obey His voice" (<a href='B:20 23:22'>Exo 23:22</a> s:w:), but this didn't happen. And so the destruction of all Israel's afflicters didn't happen as was hoped for in this Psalm and as was potentially possible. The "affliction" of God's people was however because they had sinned and broken covenant, in terms of the covenant agreed in <a href='B:50 28:52'>Deu 28:52</a> (s:w:). This Psalm lacks the confession of sin and acceptance of the rightness of this punishment which was required to trigger the fulfilment of the restoration prophecies at that time. Instead the focus is all upon lamenting the results and pain of the punishments / afflictions, without accepting that they had been justified and without any clear statement of repentance. David often uses the word for his afflicters or enemies which arose as a result of his sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 23:5'>Psa 23:5</a>; <a href='B:230 31:11'>Psa 31:11</a>; <a href='B:230 42:10'>Psa 42:10</a> and very often); but he likewise tends to bemoan his afflictions rather than recognize their appropriacy and express lasting contrition for his sin. In the context of the exiles, we note that the same word for "affliction" is used of what Haman did to the Jews (<a href='B:190 8:1'>Est 8:1</a>; <a href='B:190 9:10'>Est 9:10</a>; <a href='B:190 9:24'>Est 9:24</a> and often):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The ploughers ploughed on my back; they made their furrows long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This presents the picture of scourging. The Lord Jesus was the "suffering servant" in that in His sufferings, He bore the punishment for Israel's sins as their representative whilst personally innocent. It was only through personal identification with Him (now through baptism into His death and sufferings) that God's people could be saved. In this sense "by His stripes [the marks of scourging] we are healed / saved" (<a href='B:290 53:5'>Isa 53:5</a>). "Made long" is a term usually used in the sense of prolonging a period of time; the complaint of the exiles was that the period of 70 years exile was being prolonged, as Ezekiel often had to encounter. But this was because of their impenitence, rather than God's inability or forgetting.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is righteous; He has cut apart the cords of the wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the time of <a href='B:230 46:9'>Psa 46:9</a>, when the enemies of Israel through the entire eretz promised to Abraham would be "cut apart" (s:w:). This is stated in the past tense in faith that it would soon happen. Hence "let them be::." in the future tense in :5,6. The fulfilment of this prayerful request was not granted at the time of the exiles in Babylon, but it will ultimately happen at the return of the Lord Jesus. The decree of Cyrus did cut apart the cords- but most of the exiles didn't make use of that potential and preferred to remain in exile.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "return" of the exiles to Zion was to coincide with the 'turning back' [s:w:] of her enemies. But this depended upon the people of Zion returning both to their God and to their land, and most of the exiles chose not to do so. The time of judgment for those who "hate" God's people is when the promises to Abraham are fulfilled (s:w. <a href='B:10 24:60'>Gen 24:60</a>), and this is now reapplied to the time of the return of the Lord Jesus, Abraham's seed, to the earth.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This imagery is used in <a href='B:290 40:8'>Isa 40:8</a> but with the message that "all flesh" is like this, God's people just as much as their enemies; and only attention to the prophetic word of Yahweh of restoration of the Kingdom would impart any hope of immortality. But the term "grass on the housetops" is only used in the context of the nations surrounding Judah at the time of the Assyrian invasion (<a href='B:290 37:27'>Isa 37:27</a>). These words had potential fulfilment in Hezekiah's time, but he instead chose to befriend the Babylonians and preclude any fulfilment of the prophecies of a restored Kingdom of God on earth at his time:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>with which the reaper doesn’t fill his hand, nor the binder of sheaves his belt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that this withered grass is useless for anything. "The reaper" is presented as repentant Israel, the exiles who had once sowed in tears now reaping with joy at the restoration (<a href='B:230 126:5'>Psa 126:5</a> s:w:). Those Gentiles who would not accept the word of Yahweh, which changes us all from withered grass (<a href='B:290 40:8'>Isa 40:8</a>), would not be gathered in by the repentant exiles. The idea was that they would gather in repentant Gentiles, but not impenitent ones. These great possibilities didn't come about; they were precluded by the impenitence of the exiles as well as of the Gentiles:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Neither do those who go by say, The blessing of Yahweh be on you. We bless you in the name of Yahweh- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Those who go by" is literally 'those who cross over', related to the word "Hebrew". The returning exiles who were crossing over from Babylon to Zion would be unable to bless these Gentiles. Repentant Israel were intended to be a blessing to the Gentile world- but they couldn't be if the Gentiles didn't repent. The sadness however was that according to Ezekiel, the exiles went the way of the Gentiles rather than being their guides towards Zion and the God of Israel. But the essence of the prophetic picture of the restoration will come true in the last days, and also in spiritual terms in the things of the Lord Jesus and the new Israel formed in Him.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><h2>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Out of the depths I have cried to You, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The feeling of being submerged beneath deep waters is common in David's Psalms; it was how he felt as a result of his sins with Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 69:1'>Psa 69:1</a>; <a href='B:230 69:12'>Psa 69:12</a>; <a href='B:230 69:14'>Psa 69:14</a>). The same word is used about the "depths" of moral distance from God due to sin (<a href='B:290 29:15'>Isa 29:15</a>; <a href='B:290 31:6'>Isa 31:6</a>; <a href='B:350 9:9'>Hos 9:9</a>). This leads to the talk about forgiveness and asking God not to keep a record of sins (:3,4). David's path of repentance, forgiveness and restoration was that to be followed by the exiles. They were to go up to Zion in this spirit. However, they didn't- just as David seems to have cried out for the consequences of his sin to be removed, rather than continuing to be forthcoming in contrition and recognition of his sin. The waters were clearly representative of Gentile nations in the Bible; the figure naturally applies to the exiles in the "sea" of the Babylonian / Persian empire, which could have been 'dried up' to allow them to return, just as Egypt and the Red Sea had been (<a href='B:290 51:10'>Isa 51:10</a> s:w:). But most of them preferred to remain there.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lord, hear my voice. Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my petitions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A voice crying from the depths (:1) recalls Jonah in his disobedience and arrogance. Whilst this Psalm is indeed concerned with forgiveness, there is a notable lack of any statement of repentance, guilt or contrition. There is a request for forgiveness to be granted and for God not to remember sin, to just wipe His records (:3). But there is no actual statement of repentance or guilt. Rather is the impression given that God should get on and fulfil His word of restoration (:6), and as it were not be so concerned about Israel's sins.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If You, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :2. This could be read as the Psalmist asking God not to keep remembering Judah's sins against them [for He does "keep a record of sins", s:w. <a href='B:220 10:14'>Job 10:14</a>], and to just get on and restore them. Or it could be read as a general statement of truth- that God does not "mark" sin but forgives it, as our love for our brethren should keep no record of their past sins (<a href='B:530 13:5-7'>1Co 13:5-7</a> N:I:V:). If we refuse fellowship people because of the effect of past sins for which they have repented, then we are 'marking' iniquity. God does not deal with us in a manner which is proportional to the type or amount of sin we commit (<a href='B:230 103:7-12'>Psa 103:7-12</a>). David likewise was made to 'stand firm' despite his sin (s:w. <a href='B:100 22:34'>2Sa 22:34</a>; <a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:8'>Psa 31:8</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But there is forgiveness with You, therefore You are feared-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fear of respect for God which He seeks therefore arises not from fear of condemnation, but rather from awe at the way He forgives. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I wait for Yahweh. My soul waits. I hope in His word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David speaks of waiting and watching for the Lord in the context of asking for forgiveness (<a href='B:230 130:5-6'>Psa 130:5-6</a>). <a href='B:650 9:28'>Heb 9:28</a> speaks of the faithful as waiting for Christ to "appear without sin unto salvation". This alludes to a humbled, repentant Israel on the Day of Atonement, having confessed their sins and afflicted their souls through fasting, waiting for their High Priest to appear and pronounce upon them the blessing of forgiveness. The Spirit is using this as a type of us expecting the second coming of our Lord; the motivation for our enthusiasm should be our earnest need of ultimate forgiveness and reconciliation with God. But "the word" hoped for was specifically the fulfilment of the word of restoration. We note that "the word" is put for "the fulfilment of the word", so certain is God's word of ultimate fulfilment. But the psalmist wanted it to come true immediately, when the preconditions were still not right.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning; more than watchmen for the morning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Watching for the morning is the phrase used about the plot to slay David by morning (<a href='B:90 19:2'>1Sa 19:2</a>; <a href='B:90 19:11'>1Sa 19:11</a>). <a href='B:230 130:6'>Psa 130:6</a> would therefore have originated with David's reflections that whatever the careful watchings of man to destroy him, his focus was upon longing for the Lord. This then became applied to Hezekiah, who prayed so intensely the night when he thought he would be dead by morning (<a href='B:290 38:13'>Isa 38:13</a>). And now it is the thought of the faithful exiles, desperately and intensely longing for dawn of Zion's glad morning in fulfilment of the restoration prophecies:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel, hope in Yahweh, for with Yahweh there is grace, with Him is abundant redemption-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel were to be encouraged by David's experience that they could receive "abundant" redemption (s:w. "wash me thoroughly from my iniquity" in <a href='B:230 51:2'>Psa 51:2</a>). The same "redemption" had been experienced at the Red Sea (s:w. <a href='B:230 111:9'>Psa 111:9</a>). That redemption from Egypt and gift of the Kingdom to Israel was all an articulation of God's characteristics as memorialized in his Name; see on :2. The redemption promised and implied in the covenant with Abraham is ongoing to God's people of all generations. This verse could be read as an appeal to Israel to repent and believe in God's grace. But the specific appeal for repentance isn't there; rather it is an appeal to trust in God's grace, which was hoped to bring about the restoration prophecies with or without repentance.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will redeem Israel from all their sins- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The redemption of Israel from Babylon was essentially dependent upon their being redeemed from their sins. But most preferred to remain in Babylon, and repentance just wasn't on their agenda. It was a redemption refused, even when that redemption was achieved through the ultimate redeemer, the Lord Jesus.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents. By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, my heart isn’t haughty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm used by Hezekiah wasn't taken seriously by him. For him, it was just the words of a hymn. For his heart was lifted up / haughty, the very same phrase used of him in <a href='B:140 32:25'>2Ch 32:25</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Nor my eyes lofty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The phrase used of the Assyrians (<a href='B:120 19:22'>2Ki 19:22</a>). Hezekiah is saying that his eyes are not as theirs; and yet he was deceiving himself, as just noted. David was aware that God judges people for things like their facial expression and body language (s:w. <a href='B:230 18:27'>Psa 18:27</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These things too wonderful don't have to refer to things beyond the psalmist's understanding; rather is the sense of things too "hard" for him to achieve in his own strength (<a href='B:10 18:14'>Gen 18:14</a>). Humility comes from truly recognizing that our salvation is of God and cannot be of ourselves. Yet Hezekiah did all he could within his power to effect his deliverance from the Assyrians, he did indeed "concern himself" with the things of salvation.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the David context, 'to go' ["concern myself"] with 'great things' is the phrase used of David in <a href='B:100 5:10'>2Sa 5:10</a>; he "went on [s:w. "concern myself"] and grew great" [s:w. "with great matters"]. So the idea of <a href='B:230 131:1'>Psa 131:1</a> may be that David didn't pay attention to these things so as not to become proud.</p>


text:
<h2>Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If David was the author of this Psalm, and of Psalms 132, then it provides an example of how David sees himself from outside of himself. Psalms 132&nbsp; speaks of David in all his afflictions. <a href='B:230 131:2'>Psa 131:2</a> RV has him speaking of stilling and quieting his soul like a mother does a child- as if he saw himself as the mother to his own soul, talking to himself. He uses the same word for "quieted" in recording how he had quieted himself, telling himself to be calm (<a href='B:230 37:7'>Psa 37:7</a>; <a href='B:230 62:5'>Psa 62:5</a>). In the Hezekiah context, this would apply to his calming down after his illness had been healed and he was granted another 15 years.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel, hope in Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As God had come through for David and Hezekiah, so the exiles were to hope for "the hope of Israel", the restoration from exile to the restored Kingdom of God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From this time forth and forever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is just as Israel were to praise the Name of Yahweh "from this time forth and forever". The idea may be that we will eternally be praising the name of Yahweh; in the sense of appreciating and praising His characteristics. For the declaration of His Name to Moses involved the listing of His characteristics which combine to make up His personality. We can begin living the eternal life now, in that we can now act as we shall eternally. We shall be eternally appreciating, trusting, loving and praising God's Name- and we can begin that now. This is an Old Testament form (also in <a href='B:230 113:2'>Psa 113:2</a>; <a href='B:230 115:18'>Psa 115:18</a>; <a href='B:230 121:8'>Psa 121:8</a>; <a href='B:230 125:2'>Psa 125:2</a>; <a href='B:230 131:3'>Psa 131:3</a>) of the Lord's teaching as recorded in John's Gospel, that we can have and live the eternal life right now. We have that life not in the sense that we shall never die, but in that we can begin living and being now as we shall eternally live and be.</p><h2></h2>


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<p><h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This mutuality between God and man is brought out by the structure of several of the Psalms, in which God and David are shown to be involved in a dynamic, two way relationship. Consider Bullinger's analysis of Psalms 132 :</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A (vv 1,2) David swears to God</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B (3-5) What David sware</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C (6,7) Search for a dwelling place</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D (8) Prayer to enter into rest</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>E (9) Prayer for priests</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>F (9) Prayer for saints</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>G (10) Prayer for Messiah</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was responded to by God:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A1 (v 11) God swears to David</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B1 (11,12) What God sware</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C1 (13) Designation of the dwelling place</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D1 (14,15) Answer to prayer in D</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>E1 (16) Answer to prayer in E</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>F1 (16) Answer to prayer in F</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a class='strong' href='#sG1'>G1</a> (17, 18) Answer to prayer in G.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, remember David and all his affliction-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 132, which was written after David’s time (:8,10), includes a prayer to God to reward David for all his afflictions (:1). Even after a man’s death, faithful men prayed for his salvation; so it seems. This needs some reflecting upon as to its implications. <a href='B:620 1:16'>2Ti 1:16</a> records Paul praying that the Lord would give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus; yet the same phrase is used in v. 18 about receiving mercy at judgment day.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "afflictions" of David are presented as a pattern for those of the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:230 107:17'>Psa 107:17</a>). They too denied their sin initially and struggled to accept its consequences; but David's path of repentance and restoration was to be theirs. But for the most part they refused to follow thIsa.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>how he swore to Yahweh, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that despite his afflictions (:1), David was not so swamped by them that he had no thought for the work of God's house. And in this he was the pattern for the exiles. David was self aware that his afflictions had militated against his temple project, but he can conclude in <a href='B:130 22:14'>1Ch 22:14</a>: "Behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Yahweh".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The mighty one of Jacob" is a phrase used to the exiles in <a href='B:290 49:26'>Isa 49:26</a>; <a href='B:290 60:16'>Isa 60:16</a>.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely I will not come under the roof of my house, nor go up into my bed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A case can be made that the psalm is not simply David being remembered and quoted; but David himself speaking. In this case, he would be asking for God to accept Solomon as the Messianic seed (:10,17) for the sake of David's hard work for the temple. But such things cannot be predicated upon the works of another. We see here David labouring under misplaced ideals. He was fixated upon his son Solomon becoming the Messianic seed, and he thought that his own works could somehow bring this about. He [and the exiles] ought to have focused more upon the promises to Abraham than those to himself.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And yet we can discern here an allusion to the words of David's faithful friend Uriah whom he effectively murdered. He refused to go up to his bed nor come under the roof of his own house because he preferred identity with God's suffering people, His "house" (<a href='B:100 11:11'>2Sa 11:11</a>). David later remembered these words, and alludes to them when he thinks of arranging the building of the temple. The words of Uriah haunted him, and he commendably vows to follow his noble example. In this we see David's humility and repentance.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be a studied disregard for the revelation of <a href='B:230 127:2'>Psa 127:2</a>, which urges David and his seed not to stay up late planning to build a physical temple, but to accept sleep from God and trust Him to build him a house in the sense of a Messianic seed and family / kingdom. The&nbsp; words of Proverbs 6 show that Solomon's motivation for teaching God's&nbsp; ways&nbsp; to&nbsp; his&nbsp; son (Rehoboam) was because this is how his father&nbsp; had&nbsp; taught&nbsp; him. “Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids”, he exhorts his son (<a href='B:240 6:4'>Pro 6:4</a>), in the very language used to describe his father’s zeal for the building of the temple (<a href='B:230 132:4'>Psa 132:4</a>).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>until I find out a place for Yahweh, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of the exiles, the allusion may be to <a href='B:300 29:14'>Jer 29:14</a>, which says that the repentant exiles would "find" the "place" (s:w:) of Yahweh in their return to their God and to Zion. Earlier whilst on the run from Saul, David longed to be in the "place::. and dwelling" of Yahweh, at the sanctuary operated by Samuel (s:w. <a href='B:230 26:8'>Psa 26:8</a>). There was no temple, but Yahweh still had a place and dwelling on earth. But now later in <a href='B:230 132:5'>Psa 132:5</a> David seems to feel that Yahweh needed a more grandiose "place::. dwelling", otherwise He would have no dwelling place. Over the years, he had come to focus more upon the physical and external rather than upon the essential and the spiritual. This is a tendency for all of us. "Dwelling" is the usual word for "tabernacle". Yahweh had a dwelling place, in the tabernacle. But David seems to think that this wasn't quite enough, and there was the need for him to build some more physical structure for His presence. This is a far cry from the younger David in the wilderness, who felt that he was in the presence of Yahweh, right under His cherubic wings, although far from the physical sanctuary:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This clearly alludes to David's bringing of the ark to Zion. He protests that this shows his concern for the things of the sanctuary, and he sees this as coming to fuller term in his desire to build a temple and see his son enthroned as a king-priest in Zion. "Ephrathah" was another name for David's home&nbsp; town of Bethlehem (<a href='B:10 35:19'>Gen 35:19</a>; <a href='B:10 48:7'>Gen 48:7</a>; <a href='B:80 4:11'>Rth 4:11</a>). He may be saying that from his earliest boyhood days he had heard of the ark and had dreams for glorifying it, and he found it much later in Kirjath Jearim, "city of forests", or "Jaar":&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We found it in the field of Jaar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Jaar" is "forests". It could be argued that "Ephrathah" referred not only to Bethlehem, but was also the name for the area around Kirjath-jearim, "city of forests". The firstborn son of Caleb’s wife Ephrath [a form of "Ephrathah"] was Hur (<a href='B:130 2:19'>1Ch 2:19</a>), who is called ‘the father’ of Bethlehem (<a href='B:130 4:4'>1Ch 4:4</a>). Hur’s son Shobal was ‘the father’ of Kirjath-jearim, and his son Salma the ‘father’ of Bethlehem (<a href='B:130 2:50-51'>1Ch 2:50-51</a>). It was from Kirjath-jearim that David brought up the ark to Zion (<a href='B:90 7:1-2'>1Sa 7:1-2</a>; <a href='B:130 13:5-6'>1Ch 13:5-6</a>):&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We will go into His dwelling place. We will worship at His footstool-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This initially referred to David's invitation to the people to come up to Zion and worship once he had moved the ark there. But it becomes used as an invitation for the exiles to return to Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The ark is called both the throne of God and also His footstool (<a href='B:230 94:5'>Psa 94:5</a>; <a href='B:230 132:7-8'>Psa 132:7-8</a>; <a href='B:130 28:2'>1Ch 28:2</a>). Above or sitting upon the cherubim, the pagan mind expected to see Israel's God. But there was (to their eyes) an empty throne. Yahweh had to be believed in by faith. And His supreme manifestation was through the blood of sacrifice. Cassuto gives evidence that the Egyptians and Hittites placed their covenant contracts in a box beneath the throne of their gods; and the tables of the covenant were likewise placed beneath the throne of Yahweh. This similarity begged the comparison yet stronger- Israel's God was not seated there. He had to be believed in by faith. Such a concept of faith in an invisible god was quite foreign to the pagan mind; and yet the whole tabernacle plan was designed to have enough points of contact with the pagan tabernacles in order to elicit this point in very powerful form: the one true God is invisible and must be believed in.</p><h2>However it could also be argued that Yahweh was enthroned upon the cherubim, and the ark was His footstool, as in <a href='B:130 28:2'>1Ch 28:2</a>. It was to the ark that Israel came to worship, although it was invisible to them, only visible to the priesthood. Or the footstool could be the entire sanctuary, as in <a href='B:230 99:5'>Psa 99:5</a>.</h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Arise, Yahweh, into Your resting place; You, and the ark of Your strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :14 God apparently confirms this; but we never know if this is David as it were putting words in God's mouth: "this is My rest for ever; here will I dwell" (:14). And there is indeed a connection between the ark and God's resting place:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>- <a href='B:40 10:33'>Num 10:33</a>&nbsp; "The&nbsp; ark&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; covenant of the Lord went before them::. to search out a resting place"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>- <a href='B:130 28:2'>1Ch 28:2</a> "An house of rest for the ark"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>However, the real resting place of God's Name is not in the literal ark, but in the hearts of people humble to God's Word. The exiles were told: "Where is the house that you build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest?::. to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word" (<a href='B:290 66:1-2'>Isa 66:1-2</a>):&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems David thought that by bringing the physical ark to Zion, he was somehow establishing the Messianic Kingdom. But God is far beyond such external symbols of spirituality. Mark Vincent discerns how David thought that the bringing of the ark to Zion could have been its’&nbsp; final homecoming- although Solomon his son let everything down in reality: “[“Arise O Lord into thy rest” in <a href='B:230 132:8'>Psa 132:8</a> alludes to “Rise up, O Lord” in <a href='B:40 10:35'>Num 10:35</a>]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The words which Moses had to utter each time the ark journeyed through the wilderness would no longer be needed, for the ark had at last reached its final destination. This is why the Psalm says “Arise O Lord into thy rest”. David and his people hoped that the ark had come here for ever, and that God would dwell among and reign over His people for eternity. Alas, because of the wickedness of Israel, this was not to be” (Exploring The Psalms , Birmingham: CMPA, 2001, p. 144).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, let Your saints shout for joy!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of God's Kingdom upon earth (<a href='B:230 149:5'>Psa 149:5</a>). It was God who would make this happen (:16), rather than David's manipulation of the physical ark, and getting the people to shout for joy. But as discussed on <a href='B:230 132:8'>Psa 132:8</a>, David mistakenly thought that merely bringing the ark to Zion meant this would come about.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon prayed to God in the terms and language of his father (<a href='B:140 6:41-42'>2Ch 6:41-42</a> cp. <a href='B:230 132:1'>Psa 132:1</a>; <a href='B:230 132:8-9'>Psa 132:8-9</a>). He was familiar with his father’s Psalms- after all, all Israel sung them. It must have been like being the son of a world-famous singer. The words were even in Solomon’s subconscious it seems, for when he tells his son “Give not sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eyelids” (<a href='B:240 6:4'>Pro 6:4</a>) he is alluding unconsciously, it seems (in that it is out of context) to David’s promise not to give sleep to his eyes until he had found a resting place for the ark (<a href='B:230 132:4'>Psa 132:4</a>).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Your servant David’s sake, don’t turn away the face of Your anointed one-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whoever prayed <a href='B:230 132:10'>Psa 132:10</a> asked to be heard “for Your servant David’s sake”- he or she believed that God would remember David and for his sake respond favourably [and how much more powerful is prayer uttered for the sake of the Son of God!]. This opens the question of how far will God accept others for the sake of the prayers of [or mere existence of] sympathetic third parties. But if these are the words of David himself, then we seem to have him here asking God to accept Solomon as the "anointed one", the Messianic seed. For Solomon is in view in :11. But this was not to be- for personal spirituality is always required, no matter what good folks are praying for us. And Solomon ultimately lacked that.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh has sworn to David in truth, He will not turn from it: I will set the fruit of your body on your throne-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This and the following verses could be extra revelation from God confirming David's understanding of the promises made to him in 2 Samuel 7. But they could also be David's speculations about what God intended rather than actual replication of some extra Divine revelation. For example, unlike the covenant with Abraham, God didn't "swear" in the sense of confirming those promises with an oath. Although <a href='B:230 89:3'>Psa 89:3</a>; <a href='B:230 89:39'>Psa 89:39</a>; <a href='B:230 89:45'>Psa 89:45</a> could be taken as saying that He did in fact do so, although unrecorded in 2 Samuel 7. David clearly has the view that his immediate son Solomon was to be the fulfilment of the promises of a Messianic seed reigning eternally on his throne. He indulges this speculation in Psalms 72, but it was not to ultimately come about in Solomon:&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If your children will keep My covenant, My testimony that I will teach them, their children also will sit on your throne forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This repeats the conditional element in the promises to David, which Solomon failed to fulfil. But the covenant with David is here expanded into "My testimony that I will teach them", information not contained in the text of the promises to David. Those promises originally focused upon one individual, whom the New Testament interprets as the Lord Jesus. But David here in <a href='B:230 89:30'>Psa 89:30</a>; <a href='B:230 132:12'>Psa 132:12</a> and Solomon in <a href='B:110 8:25'>1Ki 8:25</a> chose to understand the "seed" as the Davidic dynasty down the generations. This loss of focus upon the future Lord Jesus was what led David and Solomon to focus instead upon their own dynasty, rather than upon the future individual son of David who would reign eternally upon David's throne. His personal&nbsp; immortality came to be interpreted as the eternal continuance of the Davidic dynasty as kings of Israel throughout future generations.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Yahweh has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His habitation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's promise was that the Messianic seed would reign eternally upon David's throne in Jerusalem. But David appears to interpret this as meaning that God had some geographic preference for Zion and would desire to eternally live there. But the New Testament emphasizes that He has no such concept of sacred space. His dwelling is in the hearts of individuals. It seems to me that David's personal fondness for the hill of Zion was transferred by him onto God. See on <a href='B:230 78:67'>Psa 78:67</a>. This is not to say that Zion has no significance for God; in the restored Kingdom, He will "choose Jerusalem again" (<a href='B:450 2:12'>Zec 2:12</a>), although "Jerusalem" there is paralleled with "Judah". It is the people of Jerusalem and Judah in whom He shall dwell, rather than having some more intense metaphysical 'manifestation' on one geographical spot rather than on any other.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is my resting place forever. Here I will live, for I have desired it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :13, it is hard to know whether these words are Yahweh's direct revelation to David, or his interpretation of what he thought the promises to him implied. Zion was not God's eternal resting place at that time; for Ezekiel sees the shekinah glory removing from Zion and going into exile. It seems to me that David's personal fondness for the hill of Zion was transferred by him onto God. The word for "desire" is always used of human desire, never of God; it is the word used of David's desire to drink water from the well in Bethlehem (<a href='B:100 23:15'>2Sa 23:15</a>). Solomon was to be a "man of rest" (s:w. "resting place"; <a href='B:130 22:9'>1Ch 22:9</a>). David imagined therefore that Solomon was to be the king at the time of this eternal "resting place". But he seems to be confusing his desires for his son's glory with God's intentions in His own Son the Lord Jesus:&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will abundantly bless her provision-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Bless her provision" is a phrase only used elsewhere about the blessing of Isaac given to his sons for their hunting&nbsp; venison / provision (<a href='B:10 27:7'>Gen 27:7</a>; <a href='B:10 27:19'>Gen 27:19</a>; <a href='B:10 27:25'>Gen 27:25</a>; <a href='B:10 27:30-31'>Gen 27:30-31</a>; <a href='B:10 27:33'>Gen 27:33</a>). The phrase is used six times in Genesis 27. But that blessing of Isaac was later revealed not to be that significant; it was not the Messianic blessing of the true seed of Abraham. And Jacob effectively gives it back to Esau as unnecessary for him (see on <a href='B:10 33:11'>Gen 33:11</a>). So again we get the hint that David is talking in very material terms.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will satisfy her poor with bread-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon speaks often of how hard work will "satisfy with bread" (<a href='B:240 12:11'>Pro 12:11</a>; <a href='B:240 20:13'>Pro 20:13</a>; <a href='B:240 28:19'>Pro 28:19</a>). David his father uses the phrase in the context of saying that being 'satisfied with bread' is part of God's gracious blessing (<a href='B:230 132:15'>Psa 132:15</a>). We see here how Solomon became focused upon works, rather than faith in the blessings which come from Divine grace. And yet he uses the words his father had used; but he interprets them as justification of works rather than acceptance of grace.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The ending of poverty meant a time when Israel were obedient to the covenant (<a href='B:50 15:4'>Deu 15:4</a>). But they weren't, and the returning exiles experienced famine (<a href='B:440 1:6'>Hag 1:6</a>). The fulfilment is therefore reapplied to the things of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Her priests I will also clothe with salvation, her holy people will shout aloud for joy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of God's Kingdom upon earth (<a href='B:230 149:5'>Psa 149:5</a>). It was God who would make this happen, rather than David's manipulation of the physical ark (:8,9). But as discussed on :8, David mistakenly thought that merely bringing the ark to Zion meant this would come about. The exiles could have fulfilled this in a restored kingdom (<a href='B:290 61:10'>Isa 61:10</a>); but most preferred to remain in exile, and those who did return were impenitent and didn't build nor operate the temple system as commanded in Ezekiel 40-48.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although there was a special priesthood, it was clearly God's intention that all Israel should be like priests; they were to be a "Kingdom of priests" (<a href='B:20 19:6'>Exo 19:6</a>). Israel were all “saints”, and yet saints and priests are paralleled in passages like <a href='B:230 132:16'>Psa 132:16</a>. Israel in the wilderness had clothes which didn’t wear out- just as the Priestly clothes didn’t, and were handed down from generation to generation (so <a href='B:20 29:29'>Exo 29:29</a> implies).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There I will make the horn of David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for my anointed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David understood the Lord's anointed as his son Solomon, his horn who would bud in Messianic glory. Hence David is specific that this budding forth will be in Zion. He begins asking for this in :10, speaking of Solomon as Yahweh's anointed. But now he assumes his prayer has been heard, and this will indeed be the case. David is losing his focus upon the Lord Jesus, the seed who would be his great horn and eternal light in Zion. <a href='B:490 1:69'>Luk 1:69</a> defines the horn of David as the Lord Jesus; for Solomon failed to be as David hoped. He was the "branch of righteousness" which would "bud [AV "grow up"] unto David" (<a href='B:300 33:15'>Jer 33:15</a>). In the context of the exiles, this individual who would "bud" could have been Zerubbabel, who could have rebuilt the temple as required for it to be filled with God's glory (s:w. <a href='B:450 6:12'>Zec 6:12</a>). But he too failed. The fulfilment has to be in the Lord Jesus, the eternal lamp or light of the world. "Ordained a lamp" is the phrase only elsewhere used for the ordering of the lamps upon the candlestick (<a href='B:20 40:4'>Exo 40:4</a>; <a href='B:30 24:4'>Lev 24:4</a>). The idea is that this Messianic horn of David was to reign as a king-priest amongst the candlestick of the holy place; an image used in Revelation 1 of the Lord Jesus, as Solomon clearly didn't fulfil thIsa:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But a burning lamp is a metaphor for the preservation of the dynasty (<a href='B:230 18:28'>Psa 18:28</a>; <a href='B:110 11:36'>1Ki 11:36</a>; <a href='B:110 15:4'>1Ki 15:4</a>; <a href='B:100 21:17'>2Sa 21:17</a>). David's idea was that his dynasty would not end; but this didn't come about, for the Davidic line of rulers ended at the captivity. It was only to come true in the person of the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will clothe his enemies with shame, but on himself, his crown will be splendid- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This again assumes that Solomon is to reign in glory and his enemies shamed. David reasons likewise in Psalms 72. These things were not fulfilled in Solomon, ultimately, for he turned away. But the words are not untrue; they come true in the Lord Jesus, although this was not the fulfilment which David had in mind at the time. "Splendid" is the word usually translated "blossom", continuing the figure of 'budding' in :17.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The word for "crown" is unusual in that it is also used of the high priest’s diadem (<a href='B:20 29:6'>Exo 29:6</a>). The verb for "splendid" means also to sparkle or glitter, and is the word used of the glittering plate of gold bearing the inscription “Holiness to Yahweh” which the High Priest wore, called in <a href='B:20 29:30'>Exo 29:30</a>, “the plate of the holy diadem”. The impression is that this king will be a priest-king, after the order of Melchizedek (cp. <a href='B:300 30:21'>Jer 30:21</a>; <a href='B:450 6:11-13'>Zec 6:11-13</a>).</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Song of Ascents. By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The songs of degrees or ascents were sung by the people as they ascended in unity to keep the feasts in Zion. This unity will now be likened to the anointing oil upon Aaron (:2), and the dew (:3). Dew and oil were symbols of the blessing of the Spirit (<a href='B:100 1:21'>2Sa 1:21</a>). This alone is the basis for true unity:&nbsp; </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is like the precious oil on the head, that ran down on the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that came down on the edge of his robes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note the internal agreement of the Biblical text; the oil was "poured" upon Aaron, so much so that it ran down his beard; but only sprinkled on the priests (<a href='B:20 29:7'>Exo 29:7</a>; <a href='B:30 8:12'>Lev 8:12</a>; <a href='B:30 21:10'>Lev 21:10</a>). Aaron the High Priest is here likened to the whole community of Israel. They were all anointed, they were united "in him" by the oil of the spirit, looking ahead to the idea of the body of believers being "in Christ", the anointed one, the High Priest.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>like the dew of Hermon, that comes down on the hills of Zion-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Hills" may be an intensive plural for the one great hill of Zion, the temple mount. The Bible records things at times as they were perceived, even if they were scientifically wrong; the language of demons in the New Testament is an example. And here we have the myth that the dew of Hermon came down as rain in the Jerusalem area. But the idea is that as Hermon and Zion were part of the same water cycle, so the keeping of the feasts was to be a sign of unity between the north and the south. This received a small fulfilment in Hezekiah's time, whose feasts were attended by the faithful in the northern Kingdom, mingling in unity with the faithful in Judah. "Comes down" is the word used in :2 of the coming down of the oil on Aaron's beard.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For there Yahweh gives the blessing, even life forever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may have been the potential at the time of the restoration or even possibly in Hezekiah's time. But the preconditions weren't met, and the whole scenario has been rescheduled and reapplied to the gift of eternal life from the Lord Jesus when He sits in judgment upon David's throne in Zion. This idea of receiving the blessing of eternal life in Zion is sure evidence that the Old Testament teaches conditional rather than inherent immortality. "Life forever" is to be given in the future, at a specific location; and not at death, nor as part of any "immortal soul". The blessing of life was part of the old covenant (<a href='B:50 30:19'>Deu 30:19</a>). But here, "life forever" is the promised blessing, implying that a new covenant [different from the Mosaic covenant] was to be entered which gave life eternal.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2>A Song of Ascents-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Look! Praise Yahweh, all you servants of Yahweh, who stand by night in Yahweh’s house!-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The only feast kept at night was Passover. Perhaps that is the feast in view, and this Psalm was to be sung by those going up to Zion to keep it.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise Yahweh!-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be specifically about the priests, who were allowed into the sanctuary. Or it could be looking ahead to a day when all "servants of Yahweh" (:1), regardless of descent, could enter the sanctuary and praise Him there.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>May Yahweh bless you from Zion; even He who made heaven and earth- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The blessing of Yahweh coming out of Zion was what was possible in the restored Kingdom of God; it would be associated with Yahweh Himself dwelling in Zion (<a href='B:230 134:3'>Psa 134:3</a>; <a href='B:230 135:21'>Psa 135:21</a>). This would be the time when the temple vision of Ezekiel 40-48 was obeyed by the exiles, and the city called Yahweh Shammah, "Yahweh is there". But at the time of the exiles' return, it was precluded by their impenitence and refusal to build the temple and city according to the commands of Ezekiel 40-48, and the fact the majority refused to participate in the program and remained in Persia / Babylon.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yah! Praise the name of Yahweh! Praise Him, you servants of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This opening verse is an invitation to the Levites or priests as Yahweh's servants to begin the praise at a feast, used also in <a href='B:230 113:1'>Psa 113:1</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>you who stand in the house of Yahweh, in the courts of our God’s house-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This therefore could be a Davidic psalm reused later when the temple was built. But the sanctuary could still be called God's house, and it had courts. Perhaps :2 refers to the worshippers in the outer court, and :1 to the priests and Levites.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yah, for Yahweh is good. Sing praises to His name, for that is pleasant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The grammar could imply that God's Name is "pleasant". Praise is to be motivated by appreciating what we are praising. And the essence of Yahweh is summarized in His Name.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Yah has chosen Jacob for Himself; Israel for His own possession-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>An inheritance / possession was the most personal, intimate possession a man could have. And for Yahweh, the God of infinite possession, His wayward, tiny people were His "own possession". Yet they would only be this if they were obedient and loyal to Him (<a href='B:50 7:6'>Deu 7:6</a> cp. <a href='B:20 19:5'>Exo 19:5</a>). They weren't; but here we see the triumph of His absolute love and the grace of imputed righteousness. For He counted them as "His own possession" anyway. And it is that grace which is to be praised (:1,2).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I know that Yahweh is great, that our Lord is above all gods-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The invitation of :1 and :2 was for a mass of priests, Levites and ordinary worshippers to praise God together, en masse. But that praise was to be essentially personal; and so it should be or us today. The reference to Yahweh's supremacy above all other gods was because this Psalm was to be used when the exiles had been restored, and there was an appeal to the Gentiles to repent and accept Israel's God:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whatever Yahweh pleased, that He has done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference to the seas is emphasized because they are representative of the Gentile nations. This Psalm is an appeal to them to repent; and to accept and perceive how God had worked His pleasure or will amongst the nations in history. And that was according to the same word of purpose which had created all things, towards the final outworking of His saving purpose.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the land; who makes lightnings with the rain; who brings forth the wind out of His treasuries-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's causative power in the natural creation was just as much at work in the path of the nations. "The ends of the eretz", the land promised to Abraham, were specifically Assyria and Babylon, the classical abusers of God's people. And His word could work amongst those peoples just as much as it caused the clouds and winds from those areas to come upon Israel. The Hebrew word for "clouds" is that elsewhere translated "prince", "governor" or "ruler". God's activity in the natural creation was to be seen in His work amongst people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who struck the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and animal-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This otherwise awful act was to be the object of Israel's praise, just as the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea is to be praised as an example of God's grace enduring for ever (<a href='B:230 136:15'>Psa 136:15</a>). One take on the situation is that God foreknew that if He had not killed those Egyptians, they would have killed the Israelites.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who sent signs and wonders into the midst of you, Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his servants-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We enquire why "Egypt" is addressed specifically, as if present. Perhaps the idea is that this Psalm was to be used when the exiles had been restored, and there was an appeal to the Gentiles to repent and accept Israel's God. They were being asked to perceive the wonder of God's hand in history and the rightness of His judgments upon them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who struck many nations, and killed mighty kings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The nations in view are presumably those of Canaan (:11), alluding to <a href='B:50 7:1'>Deu 7:1</a>. <a href='B:60 12:24'>Jos 12:24</a> lists 31 nations / kings destroyed by Joshua.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan and all the kingdoms of Canaan-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If this Psalm was used in the context of the exiles, the encouragement was that no matter how strong the Samaritan opposition appeared to be it would crumble easily. For no local peoples of the land would stop God's purpose to give the land to His people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and gave their land for a heritage, a heritage to Israel, His people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel were God's heritage (:4), and the land was their heritage. The idea of giving a heritage suggests the inheritance first belonged to the One who gave it. This would suggest God considered the land of Canaan as personally His in a way the rest of the planet wasn't. And He in turn gave it to Israel His people. Psalms 135, 136 are clearly paired, and the parallel here is in the invitation to praise God for His grace in giving Israel the land as an inheritance (<a href='B:230 136:21'>Psa 136:21</a>). It was by grace because they weren't obedient to the covenant, they didn't act as God's children and rejected Him for their idols; but still He gave them what was really the inheritance for His loving children.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your name, Yahweh, endures forever; Your renown, Yahweh, throughout all generations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's Name is clearly not simply the lexical item "Yahweh". His Name is His "renown", His reputation and character expressed throughout history; and always characterized by His saving of His people by grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Yahweh will judge His people, and be sorry for His servants-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note the parallel between God's judgment of His people, and His saving pity for them. There is no need to fear judgment day; David in the Psalms often looks forward to it rather than fears it. Judgment day will be the articulation of God's Name or character (:13); which is dominated by His saving pity for people:&nbsp; This verse is read by some as meaning that God will firstly judge His people with punishment, and then be sorry for them. But that is to miss the parallelism in the Hebrew poetry here. His judging is His "being sorry for His people".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that the Canaanite nations were destroyed because of their idolatry. But Ezekiel records that Israel left Egypt with the idols of Egypt; and we know they carried the tabernacle of their god Remphan as well as that of Yahweh, all through the wilderness. This is why the parallel Psalms 136 invites praise of Yahweh's grace for all these things. In the context of the exiles, the idols of Babylon / Persia were indeed dumb. And yet according to Ezekiel and the implications of the book of Esther, idolatry was rife amongst the exiles. So this may have been also an appeal to the exiles to see the idols for what they were, and to consider how they had been historically defeated at the conquest of Canaan.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have mouths, but they can’t speak; they have eyes, but they can’t see-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that Yahweh has all these faculties. This implies that Yahweh is a personal God, and we are made in His image physically, although not morally.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have ears, but they can’t hear; neither is there any breath in their mouths-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :16. This mockery of idolatry is similar of that addressed to the exiles in <a href='B:290 44:9-20'>Isa 44:9-20</a>; and the context is the same. The exiles are being recalled from idolatry. The implication is that the God of Israel doesn't just have a dead semblance of human form, but actually is real and living, in human form; for we are made in His image. His word is spoken through His throat (<a href='B:230 115:7'>Psa 115:7</a>), and elsewhere He is presented as speaking through lips (<a href='B:220 23:12'>Job 23:12</a>). His word has true breath / Spirit.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is an abiding principle. We become like that which we worship and trust in. The process of trusting Yahweh will make us like Him. The requirement for faith and worship is therefore for our benefit. The idols have been portrayed as only appearing human; effectively they are dead, with eyes etc. which don't function. And those who worship them become likewise- not really alive as intended, not sensing reality as they are intended. Those who worship vanities become vain (<a href='B:300 2:5'>Jer 2:5</a>). This was exactly the message to the exiles (<a href='B:290 44:9'>Isa 44:9</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>House of Israel, praise Yahweh! House of Aaron, praise Yahweh!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :20, the house of Aaron are paralleled with that of all Israel. It could be that this Psalm looks ahead to the day of the new covenant promised to the exiles, when there would be a new priesthood no longer simply predicated upon descent from Aaron.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>House of Levi, praise Yahweh! You who fear Yahweh, praise Yahweh!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As it was God’s intention that Israel were to be a nation of priests to the rest of the world, so the new Israel likewise are to all discharge the priestly functions of teaching their brethren (<a href='B:20 19:6'>Exo 19:6</a> cp. <a href='B:670 2:5'>1Pe 2:5</a>; <a href='B:730 1:6'>Rev 1:6</a>; <a href='B:730 5:9-10'>Rev 5:9-10</a>). Under the new covenant, we should all teach and admonish one another (<a href='B:580 3:16'>Col 3:16</a>). Indeed, God told Israel [unrecorded in the historical records]: “Ye are gods [elohim] and all of you are sons of the Most High” (<a href='B:230 82:6'>Psa 82:6</a> RV). Further, <a href='B:230 96:9'>Psa 96:9</a> makes the paradigm breaking statement that even the Gentiles could come before Yahweh of Israel in holy, priestly array- they too could aspire to the spirit of priesthood (<a href='B:230 96:9'>Psa 96:9</a> RVmg:). Moses spoke of how all Israel should pray that God would establish the work of their hands (<a href='B:230 90:17'>Psa 90:17</a>)- but this was in fact his special request for the blessing of Levi, the priestly tribe (<a href='B:50 33:11'>Deu 33:11</a>). <a href='B:230 135:19-20'>Psa 135:19-20</a> parallels all Israel with the priestly family: “Bless the Lord, O house of Israel: bless the Lord, O house of Aaron: bless the Lord, O house of Levi: ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord::. praise ye the Lord”. All Israel were to aspire to the spirit of priesthood. Indeed, the Psalms often parallel the house of Aaron (i:e. the priesthood) with the whole nation (<a href='B:230 115:9-10'>Psa 115:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 115:12'>Psa 115:12</a>; <a href='B:230 118:2-3'>Psa 118:2-3</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be Yahweh from Zion, He who dwells at Jerusalem. Praise Yah!- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The blessing of Yahweh coming out of Zion was what was possible in the restored Kingdom of God; it would be associated with Yahweh Himself dwelling in Zion (<a href='B:230 128:5'>Psa 128:5</a>; <a href='B:230 134:3'>Psa 134:3</a>; <a href='B:230 135:21'>Psa 135:21</a>). This would be the time when the temple vision of Ezekiel 40-48 was obeyed by the exiles, and the city called Yahweh Shammah, "Yahweh is there". But at the time of the exiles' return, it was precluded by their impenitence and refusal to build the temple and city according to the commands of Ezekiel 40-48, and the fact the majority refused to participate in the program and remained in Persia / Babylon.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm is paired with Psalms 135. It could be that it is the song of praise called for at the conclusion of Psalms 135.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give thanks to the God of gods; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The other idols are not baldly stated to be non-existent. But Yahweh is so far superior to them that they have no effective existence. Just as in the New Testament demons don't exist but they are spoken of as having some existence, so here the non-existent idols are assumed to exist, for a moment and for the purpose of the argument. But Yahweh is their God and Lord (:3). What makes Yahweh so far above any idols is the quality of His grace, His undeserved favour, a concept quite unknown to any idol, ancient or modern.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give thanks to the Lord of lords; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :2. This title of Yahweh is applied to the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:730 17:14'>Rev 17:14</a>; <a href='B:730 19:16'>Rev 19:16</a>). This is no evidence that "Jesus is God"; the titles of Yahweh can be justly shared with His Son without making Yahweh and His Son one and the same person:&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to Him who alone does great wonders; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on <a href='B:230 71:19'>Psa 71:19</a>, the "great / wondrous things" performed by God were His forgiveness and salvation of a condemned sinner like David. This is described in <a href='B:230 71:19'>Psa 71:19</a> as God doing "great things", the phrase used of the great things worked in visible miracles in Egypt (<a href='B:230 106:21'>Psa 106:21</a>) and at creation (<a href='B:230 136:7'>Psa 136:7</a>). But the forgiveness of people like David is no less a great miracle. Such great things are done because of His mercy / grace (<a href='B:230 136:4'>Psa 136:4</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to Him who by understanding made the heavens; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same "understanding" and grace coded into the natural creation is manifest to us His sinful people. His grace is extended to us because He "understands"; just as we are more generous and forgiving to others when we understand their background issues. But Yahweh, whose sensitivity, awareness and understanding is seen throughout His creation, therefore exercises grace all the more.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to Him who spread out the earth above the waters; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was the same argument as used to the exiles in <a href='B:290 42:5'>Isa 42:5</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>. But it was originally David's understanding of creation (<a href='B:230 24:2'>Psa 24:2</a>). So again we see evidence that a Davidic Psalm was rewritten under inspiration and used by the exiles. Creation itself is the great example of God's grace, a connection often made by David (e:g. <a href='B:230 119:64'>Psa 119:64</a>). To create us and our environment was and is the ultimate grace.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to Him who made the great lights; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The stress is as in LXX "To him who alone made great lights". There were multiple theories and myths about the origins of the sun and moon, as there are today. The emphasis is that Yahweh "alone" created them. He was not in league with other gods. And to create sun and moon, like all creation (see on :6), was itself a sign of grace.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>the sun to rule by day; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps the idea is that the very existence of light and darkness, good and evil, is not only of God's creation but is itself a sign of grace. Perhaps that is something we will only perceive once in God's Kingdom and sharing His nature.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>the moon and stars to rule by night; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the surrounding beliefs and theories were to the effect that the night and darkness were controlled by radical evil. The grace of it all is that this isn't the case; the night / darkness is ruled, under God's control, by what He has created.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to Him who struck down the Egyptian firstborn; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The slaying of the firstborn is here presented as praiseworthy because it reflects God's grace. One take on the situation is that God foreknew that if He had not killed those Egyptians, they would have killed the Israelites. Another is that without that plague, the Egyptians wouldn't have allowed the Israelites to leave (:11):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and brought out Israel from among them; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The bringing out of Israel was of grace because they took with them the idols of Egypt, and carried the tabernacle of their gods as well as that of Yahweh. Yet Yahweh still brought them out, delivering and saving them by grace alone.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Outstretched" is the word for "incline", used by David of how he himself inclined his heart to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:51'>Psa 119:51</a>; <a href='B:230 119:112'>Psa 119:112</a>; <a href='B:230 119:157'>Psa 119:157</a>). But David prayed that God would incline his heart towards His word (<a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>) and away from sin (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>). This is how the Holy Spirit works to this day- we are confirmed in the psychological attitudes we ourselves choose to have. The word is used of God's mighty "stretched out" arm and "strong hand" in human affairs (<a href='B:230 136:12'>Psa 136:12</a> and often in Isaiah). This powerful hand of God is at work in human hearts, confirming us in the psychological way in which we ourselves wish to go. In this sense God turns or inclines the heart where He wishes (<a href='B:240 21:1'>Pro 21:1</a>). Solomon in the Proverbs places all the emphasis upon a person themselves in their own strength inclining their heart toward his teaching (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:5'>Pro 4:5</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>). He fails to appreciate what David his father did; that God's word is His word and not that of the human channel through which it comes. And he totally puts the emphasis upon human strength of will, self inclination towards God's word, rather than perceiving as David did that without God's psychological help in this, we shall ultimately fail. As Solomon himself did.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to Him who divided the Red Sea apart; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Into parts". Passing between parts was the metaphor of covenant relationship. The passing through the Red Sea looked ahead to baptism (<a href='B:530 10:1-2'>1Co 10:1-2</a>), which likewise is the entry into covenant:&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and made Israel to pass through its midst; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :13. Perhaps the grace in this was that they were "made to pass through", when they actually wished to return to Egypt. "To pass through / over" is the Hebrew word from whence the word "Hebrew" comes, 'passers over'. But God made them His people, He made them 'Hebrews', 'passers over'. Passing through the Red Sea is like baptism (<a href='B:530 10:1-2'>1Co 10:1-2</a>). There is likewise a sense in which we are baptized by God, by the Spirit (<a href='B:530 12:13'>1Co 12:13</a>). He takes the initiative and 'makes us pass over'; by His grace.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>but overthrew Pharaoh and His army in the Red Sea; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The destruction of the Egyptians is cited here as an example of God's grace to Israel, and it is likewise used in <a href='B:230 106:11'>Psa 106:11</a>. One take on the situation is that God foreknew that if He had not killed those Egyptians, they would have killed the Israelites.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to Him who led His people through the wilderness; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The people were led by the pillar of cloud and fire, the Angel / Spirit (<a href='B:40 14:14'>Num 14:14</a>). This looked ahead to how after baptism (cp. the Red Sea crossing) we are led of the Spirit (<a href='B:520 8:14'>Rom 8:14</a>; <a href='B:550 5:18'>Gal 5:18</a>; <a href='B:470 4:1'>Mat 4:1</a>). But the leading of the Spirit is grace; and the Spirit and grace are often connected in the New Testament. We are not left to find our own way to God's Kingdom after crossing the Red Sea. We are led, and that is by grace.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to Him who struck great kings; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hezekiah reference would have been to the king of Assyria surrounding Jerusalem, who was called by the same phrase, a "great king" (<a href='B:290 36:4'>Isa 36:4</a>; <a href='B:290 36:13'>Isa 36:13</a>). Yahweh's historical victory over "great kings" by His grace towards His people was to inspire the later Jews with hope that His grace would likewise render powerless the "great king" of Assyria. Always Biblical history is harnessed to encourage present faith; for "His grace endures forever", this is the constant theme in all God's dealings with his people.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and killed mighty kings; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Mighty" in the sense of many of them. <a href='B:60 12:24'>Jos 12:24</a> lists 31 nations / kings destroyed by Joshua.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sihon king of the Amorites; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The record in Numbers 21 says that Sihon chose to attack Israel when they ought to have just let the people pass through their land. Israel defeated them and took their territory, which happened to include Moab, which Sihon had recently conquered (<a href='B:40 21:21-30'>Num 21:21-30</a>). So by one battle with Sihon, Israel ended up conquering a large area. All this was of God's grace rather than their prowess in battle, or faith.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Og king of Bashan; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As with Sihon (see on :20), Og attacked Israel and God gave them a victory over Og. But this was by grace; although no details of the battle are recorded in Numbers 21, we can assume that the victory involved some special grace from God. Or perhaps the grace of it all was in the fact that the territory of Sihon and Og was on the east of Jordan, and it had not been God's intention to give this to Israel at that time. But by grace He gave them more than originally intended. Such was His love.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and gave their land as an inheritance; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It was by grace because they weren't obedient to the covenant, they didn't act as God's children and rejected Him for their idols; but still He gave them what was really the inheritance for His loving children.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>even a heritage to Israel His servant; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A people were "servants" of their gods. Israel had multiple gods whilst in the wilderness, and even carried the tabernacle of their god Remphan along with that of Yahweh. Yet by grace, God counted Israel as His servants; even though they were serving other gods.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who remembered us in our low estate; for His grace endures forever-</p><h2>"Low estate" is the term often used for those humbled by God's condemnation, e:g. the proud who are brought low (<a href='B:100 22:28'>2Sa 22:28</a>; <a href='B:220 40:11'>Job 40:11</a>; <a href='B:230 75:7'>Psa 75:7</a>; <a href='B:230 147:6'>Psa 147:6</a>; <a href='B:240 29:23'>Pro 29:23</a> and very often in the prophets). And yet God by grace remembers and lifts up even those humbled by such condemnation. This is absolute grace; to save even those suffering condemnation for their sins.</h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and has delivered us from our adversaries; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God "delivered" Israel into the hand of their "adversaries" (s:w. <a href='B:160 9:27'>Neh 9:27</a>). But it was God who also delivered them from those adversaries, even [in the case of the exiles returning from Babylon] without their repentance. This again is "grace upon grace".</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who gives food to every creature; for His grace endures forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is an Old Testament anticipation of the Lord's teaching that if God feeds ravens, then how much more shall He provide for His beloved people. Indeed it would seem that the Lord may have drawn His teaching in <a href='B:490 12:24'>Luk 12:24</a> from this verse. Again we see how grace is encoded within the entire creation.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh give thanks to the God of heaven; for His grace endures forever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"God of heaven" is a phrase associated with the books dating from the exile. The contrast is with the idols; and Yahweh's abiding grace is what places Him in an altogether different category to them.</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, and yes, we wept when we remembered Zion-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 137 speaks of Judah in captivity, apparently initially as a result of Sennacherib’s invasion as recorded in <a href='B:120 18:13'>2Ki 18:13</a>. And yet it seems to have been re-written with reference to Judah’s captivity at the hands of the Babylonians some years later. This sort of thing would’ve happened with whole books. J:W:Thirtle claims that the original manuscripts of most Old Testament books were sealed with Hezekiah’s seal, as they had been re-written and edited during his time (J:W. Thirtle, Old Testament Problems (Printland Publishers reprint, 2004 facsimile of the 1914 edition) p. 301). Scripture itself testifies to him and his men re-organizing the writings of David. Isaiah, with its initial application to Hezekiah, and then its obvious reference to the captivity and restoration, is another example.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This weeping for Zion may have been intended to be in the spirit of <a href='B:290 30:19'>Isa 30:19</a>, where the weepers for Zion are to be restored to her. To "remember Zion" could mean that they were seeking to bring Zion to God's memory, in the spirit of <a href='B:290 62:6-7'>Isa 62:6-7</a>, so that He would fulfil the promises of her restoration.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>On the willows in its midst we hung up our harps-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their weeping was therefore not at the prison camps by the Chebar river, where Ezekiel was, but at the rivers in the midst of Babylon (:1). Perhaps they chose the willows in allusion to <a href='B:290 44:4'>Isa 44:4</a>, which predicted that the revived exiles would spring up like willows next to water. For these willows were next to the rivers of Babylon (:1). However, willows didn't grow in Babylon, and the only trees by the waters of Babylon appear to have been palms. Perhaps they are described as willows especially in order to highlight the connection with <a href='B:290 44:4'>Isa 44:4</a>:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded us songs of joy: Sing us one of the songs of Zion!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "songs of joy" were "Yahweh's song" (:4), the songs sung at the time of "the day of your gladness" (<a href='B:40 10:10'>Num 10:10</a>; <a href='B:150 6:22'>Ezr 6:22</a> s:w. "joy"). The exiles were unable to keep the feasts and so they didn't use these songs any more. But we may well enquire how their Babylonian captors knew about these songs. The prophets repeatedly point out that Israel prostituted Yahweh's religion with that of the gods of Babylon. This would explain why the Babylonians now mocked the Jews' religion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Reasoning back from the addresses to the captives in later Isaiah, it appears they thought that Yahweh was a God who just operated in the land of Israel. The captives felt they couldn’t sing the songs of Yahweh in a Gentile land (Psalms 137). They thought that now they were outside His land and far from His temple, they were forgotten by Him (<a href='B:290 49:14-15'>Isa 49:14-15</a>), their cause ignored by Him (<a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a>) and they were “cast off” from relationship with Him (<a href='B:290 41:9'>Isa 41:9</a>). Hence Isaiah emphasizes that Yahweh is the creator and the God of the whole planet, and His presence is literally planet-wide.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Tormented" is literally 'to make to howl'. But this kind of abuse was only on their initial reception in Babylon. By Esther's time, the Jews were a respected and prosperous community. "They that rule over them make them to howl" (<a href='B:290 52:5'>Isa 52:5</a> s:w:). But the redemption was to be through the suffering servant which Isaiah 52 goes on to speak of. But this didn't happen. The soft life in Babylon meant that the exiles no longer wanted to be redeemed from it. Just prior to the captivity, the people had been asked to howl in repentance (s:w. <a href='B:300 4:8'>Jer 4:8</a>; <a href='B:300 25:34'>Jer 25:34</a>; <a href='B:330 21:12'>Eze 21:12</a>; <a href='B:330 30:2'>Eze 30:2</a>). They hadn't, and now they were made to howl in Babylon; but the intention was that they would do so in repentance, which would end the captivity.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How could we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Babylonians taunted the captive Jews with requests to sing them the temple songs, "Yahweh's song" (<a href='B:230 137:3-4'>Psa 137:3-4</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp; This conscious mocking of Yahweh-worship shows how the Babylonians conceived of the conflict with Israel in terms of their gods being opposed to Yahweh, whom they claimed to have vanquished:&nbsp;Today's latter day Babylonians see their struggle within the similar construct of Mohammed against Israel's God, Yahweh.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The attitude of the exiles was that God had forgotten Zion, although He protests that despite the 70 year exile, He has not done so (<a href='B:290 49:14-15'>Isa 49:14-15</a>; <a href='B:310 5:20'>Lam 5:20</a> s:w:). So this protestation that they had not forgotten Zion could be taken as implying they were more passionate than God for the restoration. The reality was that the exiles forgot their God (s:w. <a href='B:290 51:13'>Isa 51:13</a>; <a href='B:300 2:32'>Jer 2:32</a>; <a href='B:300 13:25'>Jer 13:25</a>; <a href='B:300 18:15'>Jer 18:15</a>; <a href='B:300 23:27'>Jer 23:27</a>; <a href='B:330 23:35'>Eze 23:35</a>; <a href='B:350 2:13'>Hos 2:13</a>), but not the external trappings of their religion, epitomized in Zion. This difference between religion and true spirituality remains an ever abiding issue for us all:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The skill of the right hand may be an allusion to the harp playing of :2. Hence GNB "May I never be able to play the harp again if I forget you, Jerusalem!".</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you; if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To be struck with dumbness was a curse for disobedience, experienced on behalf of the exiles by Ezekiel. The implication would then be that the psalmist felt personally innocent and undeserving of any curse. And this was the problem with the exiles; we compare this attitude with that of Nehemiah and Daniel, who fully accepted their personal part in the guilt of God's people. But as noted on :5, the context may still be that of worship and singing in :2,3. Although the captives refused to perform their songs for their captors, the psalmist implies he will continue praising God with the songs of Zion privately. hence GNB "May I never be able to sing again if I do not remember you".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm may well have originated in something David wrote about Jerusalem, perhaps whilst in exile from her at the time of Absalom's rebellion. I noted on <a href='B:230 15:1'>Psa 15:1</a> that "Yahweh, who shall dwell in Your sanctuary? Who shall live on Your holy hill?" was written before David took the hill of Zion from the Jebusites. He felt they shouldn't be living there because of how they lived so immorally, and was eager to make it his own inheritance by conquest; and it seems from <a href='B:230 16:5-6'>Psa 16:5-6</a> that David considered Zion his personal inheritance where he was to live. He considered Zion his great joy (<a href='B:230 137:6'>Psa 137:6</a>), the ultimately pleasant place (<a href='B:230 48:2'>Psa 48:2</a>).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As a bitter man does, the psalmist's mind went from one hurt to another. He remembered how when Babylon had invaded, the Edomites hadn’t helped their Hebrew brethren (<a href='B:380 1:11-12'>Oba 1:11-12</a>). They had egged on the Babylonian soldiers in ripping down the temple, shouting [in a chorus?] “Raze it, raze it, even to its foundation”. The Edomite mercenaries were not a major part of the Babylonian confederacy which sacked Jerusalem, but they are singled out for particular condemnation because "Esau is Edom", they were Jacob's brother. God particularly judges unbrotherly behaviour; we have a special responsibility to our brethren in the body of God's people. Any nastiness against them is especially culpable.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who rewards you as you have served us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The exiles were reminded that the Babylon where they lived had wasted God's people, and thus she was to be wasted (<a href='B:230 137:3'>Psa 137:3</a>; <a href='B:230 137:8'>Psa 137:8</a> AVmg:). But human beings are so fickle. Because life was easy there, the captives came to prefer Babylon to the distant Zion, and by the time of Esther they were a prosperous, comfortable community. And the majority therefore didn't return to the land and rebuild it even when given every encouragement by Cyrus.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They wept, initially, when they remembered Zion- and yet according to Ezekiel 8, back there in Zion there were awful abominations and idolatry being committed in the temple of Zion. Their weeping was mere nostalgia; their refusal to sing the temple songs was mere stubbornness, there was no genuine commitment to Yahweh's way. And it was because of this that God confirmed them in their desire to stay in Babylon. He had elsewhere predicted that He would stop them returning "to the land whereunto their soul longeth to return" (<a href='B:300 22:27'>Jer 22:27</a> RV). And He did this by confirming them in their desire to remain in Babylon. These prophecies of the destruction of Babylon therefore didn't come true as was potentially possible. Because Judah didn't want to judge Babylon. And so the language of Babylon's judgment is reapplied in Revelation to the destruction of latter day Babylon.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When we feel our enemies are unjust, we can:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>1. Seek revenge. But this isn’t a response we can make, Biblically.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>2. Deny the feelings of hurt and anger. And yet, they surface somehow. And we join the ranks of the millions of hurt people in this world, who ‘take it out’ in some way on others.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>3. Or we can do as David seems to have done. Take these feelings, absolutely as they are, with no rough edges smoothed off them</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to God Himself. Pour them all out in prayer and leave Him to resolve the matter. In passing, this fits in with the conclusions of modern psychiatry- that we can’t eliminate our feelings, so we must express them in an appropriate way.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This latter option is how I understand the imprecatory Psalms. Those outpourings of human emotion were read by God as prayers. The writer of Psalms 137, sitting angry and frustrated by a Babylonian riverside, with his harp hanging on a willow branch, being jeered (“tormented” <a href='B:230 137:3'>Psa 137:3</a> RVmg:)&nbsp; by the victorious Babylonian soldiers who had led him away captive</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> he felt so angry with them. Especially when they tried to make him sing one of the temple songs (“sing us one of the songs of Zion”). And, as a bitter man does, his mind went from one hurt to another. He remembered how when Babylon had invaded, the Edomites hadn’t helped their Hebrew brethren (<a href='B:380 1:11-12'>Oba 1:11-12</a>). They had egged on the Babylonian soldiers in ripping down the temple, shouting [in a chorus?] “Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation”. And so in anger and bitterness this Jew prays with tears, as he remembered Zion, “O daughter of Babylon</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock” (:8,9 RV). God read those angry words as a prayer, and in some sense they will have their fulfilment:&nbsp; For these words are picked up in <a href='B:730 18:8'>Rev 18:8</a>; <a href='B:730 18:21'>Rev 18:21</a> and applied to what will finally happen to Babylon. Her spiritual children will be dashed against the rock of Christ, the stone of <a href='B:340 2:44'>Dan 2:44</a>, at His return. He will dash in pieces the Babylon-led people that oppose Him.</p><h2></h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>According to the LXX titles, there were certain Psalms which were written for the dedication of the rebuilt temple, and others written by Haggai and Zechariah. They include: Psalms 96, 138, 147, 148. These all seem to speak as if the time of a glorious temple was to be the time of God’s Kingdom; this was the possibility, and it was the prevailing hope in the minds of the faithful minority. But the Psalms had to remain prophecies of the future day of Zion’s glory, for the temple was not rebuilt by the returned exiles according to the specifications of Ezekiel 40-48. This psalm originally by David was reused and reapplied to later contexts.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give You thanks with my whole heart. Before the mighty ones I will sing praises to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David spoke of seeking and praising God's grace with his "whole heart" (<a href='B:230 9:1'>Psa 9:1</a>; <a href='B:230 119:58'>Psa 119:58</a>; <a href='B:230 138:1'>Psa 138:1</a>). Solomon uses the phrase, but speaks of being obedient with the "whole heart" (<a href='B:110 8:23'>1Ki 8:23</a>; <a href='B:140 6:14'>2Ch 6:14</a>) and applying the "whole heart" to the intellectual search for God (<a href='B:250 1:13'>Ecc 1:13</a>; <a href='B:250 8:9'>Ecc 8:9</a>). There is a difference. The idea of whole hearted devotion to God was picked up by Solomon, but instead of giving the whole heart to the praise of God's grace, he instead advocated giving the whole heart to ritualistic obedience and intellectual search for God. This has been the trap fallen into by many Protestant groups whose obsession with "truth" has obscured the wonder of God's grace.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will bow down toward Your holy temple, and give thanks to Your Name for Your grace and for Your truth; for You have exalted above all things your name and your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The particular "word" David initially had in view was the word of God through Samuel that he would become king. That is what "the word" in Psalms 119 mainly refers to. Now that he was established king and could come before the sanctuary as he so longed to do whilst exiled, he thanks God. "Grace and truth" is a phrase which often refers to God's promises. David perceived that the fulfilment of Samuel's prophetic word about these things was the articulation of God's Name, exalted in the fulfilment of God's prophetic word. However we will note on :7,8 that David seems to have prayed this time whilst still under persecution from Saul, so we could read these past tenses at the start of the Psalm as his confident expectation that one day he would be in the sanctuary praising God for fulfilling His word about the Davidic Kingdom. And this was to be a pattern for the exiles:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the day that I called, You answered me; You encouraged me with strength in my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David thinks back to his time in the wilderness, and how his desperate calls for help and for the fulfilment of the prophetic word about his becoming king has been answered. He recalls how God had answered his many requests recorded in Psalms 119, to encourage him with strength in believing that the prophetic word about his kingship would in fact come true. The application to the exiles was that their prayers for restoration would likewise be heard- if they followed David's path of humility, repentance and restoration. But for the most part they didn't.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the kings of the land will give You thanks, Yahweh, for they have heard the words of Your mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's vision was of all the rulers in the eretz promised to Abraham glorifying God for making him king. And likewise there was the potential at the time of the restoration for the whole area of the eretz to come to accept Yahweh as their God because of the evident fulfilment of His prophetic word for His people. But this again didn't happen as potentially possible, and will come to full term only in the last days.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, they will sing of the ways of Yahweh; for great is Yahweh’s glory-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Nations only accepted new gods because the nations who worshipped those gods had overrun them and forced them to accept their gods and reject their own. But Yahweh's envisaged spiritual conquest of the nations of the eretz was to be because they had "heard the words of Your mouth", seeing them fulfilled in the restoration of David and later of the exiles; and they willingly therefore were to perceive Yahweh's glory and sing of His ways. And so it is in the expansion of His Kingdom in this life; individuals willingly submit themselves to Him rather than due to coercion or being swamped with His power unavoidably.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For though Yahweh is high, yet He looks after the lowly; but the proud, He knows from afar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What was intended to attract the nations to submission to Yahweh was the way that He works with the lowly, be they David or the exiles, and restores them and brings down the proud (cp. Saul, the Babylonian empire). This love of the humble was a radical inversion of all accepted values, for the proud are glorified and the humble abused in secular life. And it was this which was one of Yahweh's unique and so attractive characteristics.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies. Your right hand will save me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm begins with David thanking God for having already restored him to Zion; but as noted on :2, it could be that he said this whilst still walking "in the midst of trouble" during Saul's persecution, as well as during his exile from Absalom. "The wrath of my enemies" is a phrase he uses about both those situations (<a href='B:230 55:3'>Psa 55:3</a>). His confidence that he would be revived / restored is therefore a pattern for the exiles, who were in a similar situation. Psalms 119 is full of requests for God to "revive" or restore David according to His word of promise through Samuel that David would become king.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Trouble" was the result of disobedience to the covenant, and God would not be in the "midst" of His people at this time (s:w. <a href='B:50 31:17'>Deu 31:17</a>). This is very relevant to the exiles, but the Psalm reflects faith that even in the experience of judgment, God is still desirous to save His people.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will fulfil that which concerns me; Your grace, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of Your own hands- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on <a href='B:230 139:15'>Psa 139:15</a>. GNB better captures the sense that this refers to God's word of promise to restore David (and the exiles) even when that seemed impossible: "You will do everything you have promised; LORD, your love is eternal. Complete the work that you have begun". The work had been "begun" with David as it had with the exiles; but David is ever aware, as he is throughout Psalms 119, that the fulfilment of that word of the kingdom would be by grace. He and the exiles were personally undeserving of it. If we read "Don’t forsake the works of Your own hands", we have another example of how David sees in creation, including that of his own body, an encouragement to faith that God will work intricately and powerfully with us to further fulfil His ultimate intention with us. Our attitudes to creation therefore affect our present faith.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The psalm divides into four stanzas of six verses each—the first (:1-6) dealing with the omniscience of God; the second (:7-12), with his omnipresence; the third (:13-18), with his omnipotence; and the fourth (:19-24) containing the supplication".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, You have searched me and You know me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of <a href='B:230 17:3'>Psa 17:3</a>, also written whilst in the wilderness and before the sin with Bathsheba, which revealed David to be somewhat overconfident as to the state of his heart. The phrase is used in <a href='B:230 44:23'>Psa 44:23</a> in the context of pleading innocence to any idolatry. However the thoughts are just as appropriate to David in his reflections after the sin with Bathsheba.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You know my sitting down and my rising up, You perceive my thoughts from afar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sitting down and rising up was a metaphor for daily life (<a href='B:50 6:7'>Deu 6:7</a>), and is paralleled with his thoughts. The Bible continually parallels thought and action:&nbsp; </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of <a href='B:230 119:168'>Psa 119:168</a>, also written whilst in the wilderness and before the sin with Bathsheba, which revealed David to be somewhat overconfident as to the state of his heart. However the thoughts are just as appropriate to David in his reflections after the sin with Bathsheba.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For there is not a word on my tongue, but, behold, Yahweh, You know it altogether-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Knowledge of thoughts (:2) is paralleled with knowledge of our words; because David rightly understood that thoughts and words are all the same before God. This is developed in the Lord's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You hem me in behind and before, You have laid Your hand on me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Hem in" is the usual word for besieging. But David in Psalms 119 often rejoices in the freedom of walking in God's ways. So he doesn't at all suggest that God is constricting him, but rather that God's knowledge of his every thought, movement and word means that he is himself hemmed in to an appropriate way of living. This is the practical meaning of God's omniscience. We cannot profess to believe in God's omniscience without appropriately feeling and living, every moment of our lives.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty and beyond me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "too wonderful". Whilst the extent of God's omniscience is indeed beyond our full grasp, David doesn't mean that the things of God are too wonderful for him to understand, and he just quits in trying to handle them. Throughout the Psalms, David repeatedly speaks of the wonder of God, how he wishes to extol this, and how he mourns the tragedy of the fact that Israel generally had not grasped the wonder of their God. He asks for his eyes to be opened so that the wonder of God's ways might be made known to him (<a href='B:230 119:18'>Psa 119:18</a>). The Hebrew word translated "wonder" or "wondrous" was evidently one of David's favourites. Yet he says that although he sees the wonder of the knowledge of God, he feels it is "too wonderful for me" - perhaps "for me" is where the emphasis should be. It may be that David spoke of the knowledge of God as being "too wonderful for me" with his eye on Job's experience. If Psalms 139 was written in the aftermath of his physical and spiritual crisis at the time of Bathsheba, David would have seen himself as coming out of it with the same sense of spiritual growth as Job after his months of crisis: "Now mine eye seeth thee::. I am vile::. things too wonderful for me" all have a certain ring with the sentiments David expresses after Bathsheba. It can be demonstrated that the repentance and restoration of David after the Bathsheba incident is used, through New Testament allusion, as a prototype for the spiritual growth of each of us. This means that the terrible, crushing humbling of Job, of David, of Moses, must in some way at some time be replicated in the experience of every true saint, who struggles up the same graph of spiritual growth. From each of us there must be wrung the deep, essential realization: "I am vile::. I know (now) that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee::. therefore have I uttered that I understood thee; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not". &nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These may be the thoughts of David as he reflected upon his sin with Bathsheba. He had no place to flee from God. These words are likewise appropriate to Jonah. Jonah knew the Psalms, for his own psalm alludes to them constantly. His prayer from inside the fish is packed with allusion to them. And yet he thought he could flee from God’s presence (<a href='B:390 1:3'>Jon 1:3</a>)- even though <a href='B:230 139:7-9'>Psa 139:7-9</a> almost prophesies of Jonah, that nobody can flee from God’s presence, and the sea itself, and geographical distance, won’t hide enable such flight from God. Jonah knew thIsa. But he simply acted in a way diametrically opposed to that knowledge:&nbsp; He didn't resist his own spiritual blindness. The relevance to the exiles is that they were not hidden from God in Gentile lands; the lesson Jonah had to learn (cp. <a href='B:300 23:24'>Jer 23:24</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The essence of judgment is ongoing now; “we make the answer now”. God’s present judgment is often paralleled with His future judgment. Thus “The Lord shall judge the people::. God judges [now] the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day::. He will whet his sword; He has [right now] bent His bow, and made it ready” (<a href='B:230 7:8'>Psa 7:8</a>; <a href='B:230 7:11-13'>Psa 7:11-13</a>). We are come now “to God the judge of all” (<a href='B:650 12:23'>Heb 12:23</a>); God is now enthroned as judge (<a href='B:230 93:2'>Psa 93:2</a>; <a href='B:470 5:34'>Mat 5:34</a> “the heaven is God’s throne”). We are now inescapably in God’s presence (<a href='B:230 139:7'>Psa 139:7</a>); and ‘God’s presence’ is a phrase used about the final judgment in <a href='B:600 1:9'>2Th 1:9</a>; <a href='B:720 1:24'>Jud 1:24</a>; <a href='B:730 14:10'>Rev 14:10</a>. Hence “God is [now] the judge: He puts down one and sets up another” (<a href='B:230 75:7'>Psa 75:7</a>) – all of which He will also do at the last day (<a href='B:490 14:10'>Luk 14:10</a>). </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If I ascend up into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that neither height nor depth hides from God, and then :9 says that no length horizontally can remove us from Him either. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :8. Perhaps after the sin with Bathsheba, David in his desperation had thought of leaving Israel, as Jonah did, and living in the "sea" of the Gentile territories. But he knew that even there,&nbsp; God was present just as much as in His land. And the exiles needed to appreciate this too:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will hold me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggested on :7 that these were the reflections of David after his sin with Bathsheba, realizing that there was no place to run from God. Even in judgment and the experience of condemnation, he felt that God would still be present and would hold on to him and lead him to restoration. This was exactly relevant to the exiles in Babylon. Just as they were led by the hand in the wilderness (s:w. <a href='B:230 77:20'>Psa 77:20</a>), so they would be in exile; the apparent wasting of time living there was in fact all part of being actively led towards the promised land. And so it is with us. David uses the same word in :24 in asking to be led himself, in the way to eternity.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If I say, Surely the darkness will overwhelm me then the light around me will be night-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have suggested that originally, these words are the thoughts of David as he considered fleeing from both God and all Israel after his sin with Bathsheba. He concludes that even the darkness of sin cannot hide from God; there doesn't come a point where we sin so much that God is no longer involved with us. AV is better: "the night shall be light". Even that darkness can be brought to a glorious dawn by God. And the same imagery is used in later Isaiah, of the exiles' restoration being as a glorious dawn after the darkness of the exile. "Overwhelm" is the same word for "bruise" in <a href='B:10 3:15'>Gen 3:15</a>; the victory of sin would only be a bruise, from which he would recover:&nbsp; </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>even the darkness doesn’t hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness is like light to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :11, the darkness of sin doesn't totally hide a sinner from God, as Adam in his darkness of sin was still not hidden from God; He still seeks to lead through that darkness to the light of day; and can transform night into day. David experienced this, and the exiles were bidden follow the same path of restoration. The allusion may also be to death as darkness (<a href='B:250 12:2'>Ecc 12:2</a>; <a href='B:220 3:9'>Job 3:9</a>; <a href='B:220 18:6'>Job 18:6</a>); the God of resurrection doesn't in this sense separate between life and death, in whose mind all His people live even after death (<a href='B:490 20:38'>Luk 20:38</a>). And the darkness is a frequent symbol of the Babylonian exile (<a href='B:300 13:16'>Jer 13:16</a>; <a href='B:370 5:8'>Amo 5:8</a>; <a href='B:370 8:9'>Amo 8:9</a>). </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:40 9:21'>Num 9:21</a> says that the pillar of cloud was with the Israelites at night, and sometimes it was taken up in the night and they therefore had to move on. Does this mean that there were times when the meaning of time was collapsed during their journey, and the night was made as the day (perhaps <a href='B:230 139:12'>Psa 139:12</a> alludes to this experience)? </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You formed my inmost being, You knit me together in my mother’s womb-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again, as so often, David appeals to the wonder of creation as a reminder that God is active for him, and everything in life has a purpose, geared toward our final salvation. "Knit me together" is better translated to cover / defend. He reflects on earliest existence as an embryo in the womb. There he had been covered by God, and so he would be all his life in accordance with God's saving purpose.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful and my soul knows that very well-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "works" of God at his earliest development in the womb continued seamlessly in his life. "Wonderfully" is the word for separate, set apart. We have here the idea of being known and set apart from the womb, as Jeremiah and Paul also felt. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My frame wasn’t hidden from You when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Woven together" suggests the idea of the High Priestly garments woven of different colours. "The depths of the earth" may be a metaphor for the womb, but this Psalm comes to its ultimate fulfilment and perspective in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and all those in Him. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our lives are not a chance. By rejecting chance-evolution and accepting the Biblical teaching of creation-with-a-purpose, we sign ourselves up to living a purpose driven life. It has been rightly observed that whilst there may be illegitimate parents, there are never illegitimate children; for our existence is not unplanned by God. Your race, the colour of your skin, your hair, the genetic and social background which you had, all this was planned and is usable by God. David marvelled that God had overseen his formation, bit by bit, right from the womb; and that this formation of character was ongoing. God “will fulfill his purpose for me” (<a href='B:230 138:8'>Psa 138:8</a>). “You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Each day was recorded in your book” (<a href='B:230 139:16'>Psa 139:16</a>). Now if this is the level of intention and planning which God put into us, we at least can draw the conclusion safely and certainly: life is not aimless. God has a purpose for us and we therefore ought to be living a purposeful life, not just drifting from experience to experience as in a half-conscious dream. God is focused upon us- “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love” (<a href='B:560 1:4'>Eph 1:4</a>). If we are the focus of His love, God ought to be the focus of our lives. This is a simple truth upon which to build and structure human life in practice. This means that we will be more likely to be instantly obedient to the Father’s principles; we will overcome the natural desire to delay doing God’s work today, rendering obedience right now, because we reason that we can do it later. The purpose driven life wants to respond now rather than later.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your eyes saw my body. In Your book my body parts were all written and the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Body parts", AV "substance", appears to be the ancient Hebrew way of referring to the embryo. The body of the Lord Jesus has been “day by day fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (<a href='B:230 139:16'>Psa 139:16</a> RV). For 6,000 years providence has been at work preparing the people who are now being called into the body. The world has been prepared. It’s waiting for the preacher to win it. "Ordained" is the usual word for "formed" or "fashioned" as a potter fashions clay. But as Jeremiah makes clear, we can resist the intended outcome of that fashioning, just as our names can be removed from the book of life in which they are written. The exiles needed to be reminded of this; the language of fashioning / ordaining is common in the addresses to them in later Isaiah and Jeremiah (e:g. <a href='B:290 45:9'>Isa 45:9</a>). not only were the exiles being fashioned and brought together as a new creation, a rebirth of the body parts of Israel seen by Ezekiel in the vision of the dry bones; but in fact God had been at work with them from the womb and had not at all forgotten them or ceased working with them whilst they were in exile. The same message is stated more bluntly in <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>; <a href='B:290 46:3'>Isa 46:3</a>; <a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a>. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perceiving these things was indeed precious. Every occurrence of the word for "precious" is in the context of the value or preciousness of the human life and person (<a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>; <a href='B:120 1:13-14'>2Ki 1:13-14</a>; <a href='B:230 49:8'>Psa 49:8</a>; <a href='B:230 72:14'>Psa 72:14</a>; <a href='B:290 13:12'>Isa 13:12</a>; <a href='B:290 43:4'>Isa 43:4</a>; <a href='B:450 11:13'>Zec 11:13</a>). David's value of God's ways and desire to save people as being "precious" was reflected in how he considered the life of his enemy Saul to be likewise "precious" (<a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>). The extreme value attached by God to every human life must be our attitude, in likewise perceiving the value and meaning of persons.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The LXX in this and the following verses is very different, but continues this theme of the value of God's people: "But thy friends, O God, have been greatly honoured by me; their rule has been greatly strengthened". This makes sense of likening them to the numberless grains of sand (:18) which represent the seed of Abraham, who was the "friend of God" <a href='B:660 2:23'>Jas 2:23</a>). </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "I will number them, and they shall be multiplied beyond the sand, clearly alluding to the promises to Abraham. See on :17. God's thoughts are parallel with the seed of Abraham; He has thought for every one of us, the thought David marvelled at in :16.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When I wake up, I am still with You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :17. The idea may be that when David awakes from counting the innumerable thoughts of God for the seed of Abraham, he himself is still with God. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If only You, God, would kill the wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's common request for the destruction of Saul (<a href='B:230 5:6'>Psa 5:6</a>; <a href='B:230 5:10'>Psa 5:10</a>; <a href='B:230 7:9-13'>Psa 7:9-13</a>; <a href='B:230 9:19'>Psa 9:19</a>; <a href='B:230 10:15'>Psa 10:15</a>; <a href='B:230 21:8-12'>Psa 21:8-12</a>). And yet when Saul did die, David was heartbroken (see on 2 Samuel 1). We learn therefore to be more careful what we pray for, because in essence it will be given to us. Perhaps part of his great grief was because he realized he had prayed for this destruction.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the word for how God had 'departed' from Saul, and maybe this was initially behind David's desire that Saul leave him alone. But it is also the word used for how violence would never depart from David because of his sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:100 12:10'>2Sa 12:10</a>). David prayed for this to "depart" but it never did. David was open to the possibility that through prayer, God can remove the consequences of sin in this life; but such prayer is not always answered.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's prayer of repentance and request to be saved from "blood guiltiness" (<a href='B:230 51:14'>Psa 51:14</a>) is literally 'from blood'. He was a man of blood and was guilty of Uriah's innocent blood. David had asked for 'men of blood' to be slain (<a href='B:230 55:23'>Psa 55:23</a> s:w:), those who had taken the blood of the innocent (<a href='B:230 94:21'>Psa 94:21</a>), and for 'men of blood' to be expelled from his presence (<a href='B:230 139:19'>Psa 139:19</a>). And it is not at all clear whether all those Psalms were written before his sin with Bathsheba. God was trying to teach David that he was the type of person whom he condemned. And yet it is unclear if he learned that lesson. Solomon liberally condemns the man who sheds innocent blood (<a href='B:240 6:17'>Pro 6:17</a>; <a href='B:240 28:17'>Pro 28:17</a>), refusing to recognize that his much lauded father had done just this, and was only saved by grace and not by any obedience to wisdom. There is so little grace in the book of Solomon's Proverbs because Solomon had failed to perceive the grace shown to his father. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they speak against You wickedly, Your enemies take Your name in vain-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "For thou wilt say concerning their thought, that they shall take thy cities in vain". Perhaps the Psalm was rewritten and reapplied to later crises such as the Assyrians taking all Judah's cities apart from Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time. "Your name" is not in the original, and the same phrase is used in <a href='B:230 24:4'>Psa 24:4</a> of lifting up / taking the name of vanities, idols. The wicked enemies in view appear to initially be Saul and his men (:19), but then they refer to the idolatrous Babylonians. The problem was that the exiles seem to have initially worshipped those very idols.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate You? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against You?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of 'rising up' suggests David may have in view the rebellion of Absalom. But he sees whoever was currently arisen against him in the context of all who had previously arisen against him. It was Goliath who 'rose up against' Yahweh and His people (s:w. <a href='B:90 17:48'>1Sa 17:48</a>) just as a lion had 'risen up' against David in his youth (s:w. <a href='B:90 17:35'>1Sa 17:35</a>). Later, Saul 'rose up' against David (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:29'>1Sa 25:29</a>; <a href='B:90 26:2'>1Sa 26:2</a>), and&nbsp; then evil men 'rose up' against David out of his own family (<a href='B:100 12:11'>2Sa 12:11</a> s:w:), especially Absalom who rose up against his father (<a href='B:100 18:31-32'>2Sa 18:31-32</a> s:w:). But David has a tendency to assume that all who rose up against him were arising against God. It's not always so that our enemy is God's enemy. Relationships and the hand of God in human affairs and relationships is more complex than that. And David in <a href='B:230 139:21-22'>Psa 139:21-22</a> goes further, to assume that his hatred of people is justified, because they must, he assumes, hate God because they are against him. Solomon seems to make the same mistake when he alludes to such 'risings up' in <a href='B:240 28:28'>Pro 28:28</a>. We must note that "all in Asia" turned away from Paul personally (<a href='B:620 1:15'>2Ti 1:15</a>), and yet according to the letters to the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2, 3, there were many faithful individuals amongst them:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate them with complete hatred; they have become my enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David reached a great depth of hateful feeling for Saul here in :20-22. David also grieved for them, and in this sense his "hatred" of false ways was complete or "perfect" (AV). The same mixture of anger and yet grief is found in the Lord Himself; He looked round about upon them in anger, being grieved for their hard hearts (<a href='B:480 3:5'>Mar 3:5</a>). We must ask ourselves whether we don’t have merely an indignant reaction at others’ unspirituality; the looking round on them with anger, and yet without the unpretended grief for the whole situation. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Search me, God, and know my heart; test me, and know my thoughts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Reading through the book of Psalms in one or two sittings reveals that frequent and intense self-examination was a leading characteristic of David:, especially while on the run from Saul; as if he began to pick up false guilt from how he was being treated, wondering if it was all in fact justified (<a href='B:230 4:4'>Psa 4:4</a>; <a href='B:230 7:3'>Psa 7:3</a>; <a href='B:230 17:3'>Psa 17:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:20-24'>Psa 18:20-24</a>; <a href='B:230 19:12'>Psa 19:12</a>; <a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>; <a href='B:230 59:3'>Psa 59:3</a>; <a href='B:230 66:18'>Psa 66:18</a>; <a href='B:230 77:6'>Psa 77:6</a>; <a href='B:230 86:2'>Psa 86:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:2'>Psa 101:2</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 139:23-24'>Psa 139:23-24</a>). </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See if there is any wicked way in me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We're either led out and put to death for the sake of eternal life, or for eternal death. The logic is glaring. The Hebrew of <a href='B:230 139:24'>Psa 139:24</a> reveals a telling play on words which makes the same point: "Wicked way" is rendered in the AVmg. as 'way of pain'; the way of wickedness is itself the way of pain.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And lead me in the everlasting way- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could simply mean "the way that leads to everlasting life", or "the way which has always been of everlasting, God's way". This is the same leading commented upon on :10.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me, Yahweh, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David may be personifying a group of opponents as one evil and violent man. Or he may specifically have Saul in view (David uses the term "violent man" about him in <a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>), although the Psalm may have been reapplied by him to other later adversaries.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>and those who devise mischief in their hearts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We observe that David sees the evil of his enemies in terms of their hearts / thoughts, and their words. This is exactly God's perspective. Things which are insignificant in human judgment are of such paramount importance to Him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They continually gather themselves together for war-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As in <a href='B:230 120:7'>Psa 120:7</a>, this could apply to how Hezekiah sought to make peace with the Assyrians. But he gave them the gold of the temple for that peace treaty which they broke; but here he appears to whitewash that lack of faith as his love for peace. We can understand the initial reference to David, who truly sought to live at peace with Saul. And perhaps it has application to the returned exiles and their conflicts with the local Samaritans.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>they have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their liPsa. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that hard words are as bad as weapons of violence, spear and arrow tips with poison upon them. As noted on :2, David adopts God's perspective of condemning words and thoughts as toughly as actions. He so often laments the hard words of his enemies (<a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:230 57:4'>Psa 57:4</a>; <a href='B:230 59:7'>Psa 59:7</a>; <a href='B:230 64:3'>Psa 64:3</a>). We see here his hyper sensitivity to words. But David was to later plot the destruction of Uriah by his words; and when he repented of this in <a href='B:230 32:2'>Psa 32:2</a>, he says that lack of deceit / guile (s:w:) in our words is only possible through imputed righteousness. David's intolerance of persons with deceitful tongues (<a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 120:3'>Psa 120:3</a>) must be compared with the fact that he himself was only counted as not deceitful by grace; for he was very deceitful regarding Uriah. <a href='B:230 64:3'>Psa 64:3</a>; <a href='B:230 64:7'>Psa 64:7</a> speak of how men "aim their arrows, even bitter words"; and God responds by shooting arrows from His Heavenly control room. The language of sharpening could suggest that David wrote this as he sensed the oncoming insurrection of Absalom</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, keep me from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent men who have determined to trip my feet-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may have originated in his thoughts about Saul, then reapplied to David's need for salvation from Absalom and Ahithophel. Saul tried to trip David up through using his daughters. But this verse becomes the intended appeal of the exiles for deliverance from Babylon, then Haman, and indeed from all their captors. "The hand of the wicked / unrighteous" is the term used for the Babylonians in <a href='B:330 7:21'>Eze 7:21</a>.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The proud have hidden a snare for me, they have spread the cords of a net by the path, they have set traps for me. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Often David likens his enemies' plans to catch him as snares, gins etc. set for birds (e:g. <a href='B:230 84:3'>Psa 84:3</a>; <a href='B:230 102:6'>Psa 102:6</a>; Psalms 124; Psalms 7; <a href='B:230 140:5'>Psa 140:5</a>)- all the language of hunting birds. He had probably done plenty of this as a youngster caring for the sheep, and the influence of those formative years remained.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt as if he had been a sacrifice bound to an altar, and therefore about to be pulled into the grave (<a href='B:230 18:5-6'>Psa 18:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 116:3'>Psa 116:3</a>; <a href='B:230 140:5'>Psa 140:5</a>). The allusion is to Isaac and his miraculous deliverance from such cords, thanks to the ram in the thicket whom David is later to understand as representative of the future Messianic saviour; for the Lord quotes David's "My God, why have You forsaken me?" (<a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>) as the Aramaic sabachthani, "entangled", the word used of the ram entangled in the thicket.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I said to Yahweh, You are my God. Listen to the cry of my petitions, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David remembers the words he had used in prayer. he was so sensitive to words, including his own words.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recalls how he had defeated Goliath without armour. That victory was intended to be programmatic for the rest of David's conflicts. Likewise, circumstances repeat in our lives, all according to God's plan of development tailored to each life. See on <a href='B:230 144:5'>Psa 144:5</a>.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, don’t grant the desires of the wicked. Don’t let their evil plans succeed, or they will become proud. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Often, “desire” is seen by God as prayer (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>; <a href='B:230 21:2'>Psa 21:2</a>; <a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>; <a href='B:230 59:10'>Psa 59:10</a>; <a href='B:230 92:11'>Psa 92:11</a>; <a href='B:230 140:8'>Psa 140:8</a>; <a href='B:230 145:19'>Psa 145:19</a>; <a href='B:470 18:32'>Mat 18:32</a>; <a href='B:520 10:1'>Rom 10:1</a>; <a href='B:690 5:15'>1Jn 5:15</a>). God interprets that inner desire as prayer, even if it is not articulated in specific requests. David's prayer was that Saul would not succeed in his plans, but his final reason is so that Saul doesn't become proud. He shares God's perspective of hating pride above all things.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for the heads of those who surround me, let the mischief of their own lips cover them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their "heads" are contrasted with that of David (:7). Again David sees their worst sin as their proud words; this is the basis upon which they are to be judged; see on :2. David here confidently states that the "mischief" (s:w. "burdens") of men would return upon their own heads at death and judgment (<a href='B:230 7:16'>Psa 7:16</a>; <a href='B:230 140:9'>Psa 140:9</a>). But in <a href='B:230 73:5'>Psa 73:5</a> he momentarily doubts this (s:w:). Our understanding of basic truths can suddenly be eclipsed by moments of doubt, just as we see happening with the disciples on the lake during the storm.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let burning coals fall upon them! Let them be cast into fire, into miry pits, no more to rise-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Elsewhere, David clearly understands that eternal, unconscious death is punishment for the wicked. So he here is using "fire" as a symbol of Divine wrath, but he isn't suggesting that they will consciously suffer eternal fire. Pits of fire may allude to the judgment upon Sodom. He wishes them the same kind of judgment. Or we could argue that he uses two distinctly different symbols here- pits of mud, and fire. Neither the fire nor the mud are literal; they cannot both be literally intended. Therefore both are figurative.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There's a link between David and us is in <a href='B:230 140:9-10'>Psa 140:9-10</a>, which speaks of burning coals falling on the head of David's enemies; yet those words are effectively quoted in <a href='B:520 12:20'>Rom 12:20</a> concerning all believers. David sets himself up in the Psalms as our pattern. He speaks of himself and then applies the point to all of his readers. In other words, we really are to see David as representative of ourselves; we need to change our minds and lives so this really is the case.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>An evil tongue won’t be established in the land; evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David refers to how Saul would not be established as king, and he would replace him. But the lead reason for this, David felt, was Saul's words. We have a strong exhortation here to perceive the importance of words in how men are judged; see on :2. David believes that evil, from God, would overthrow Saul; and he would not therefore consider killing Saul himself:&nbsp; AV: “Let not an evil speaker [s:w. tongue] be established”. Because a man’s words are counted as who he Isa. Words can be controlled. We are culpable for them.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It makes a good exercise to read through one of the crucifixion records, especially John 19, and make a list of the adjectives used. There are virtually none. Read a page of any human novelist or historian: the pages are cluttered with them. Hebrew is deficient in adjectives, and because of this it often uses 'Son of:::' plus an abstract noun, instead of an adjective. Thus we read of a "son of peace" (<a href='B:490 10:5-6'>Luk 10:5-6</a>), or "a man of tongue" (<a href='B:230 140:11'>Psa 140:11</a> RVmg; AV "an evil speaker"). The Hebrew language so often reflects the character of God. And His artless self-expression is no clearer seen in the way He inspired the records of the death of His Son.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the needy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again David reflects his understanding of a court of heaven, considering the situations upon earth. And David is "the afflicted::. the needy". He often uses these terms of himself in the Psalms. His "cause" or case was that he had been chosen as king to replace Saul. And however unlikely seemed the fulfilment of that word, David believed it would be maintained and come true.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely the righteous will give thanks to Your name. The upright will dwell in Your presence- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David understands eternity as being in God's presence. He also believed in the resurrection of the body and the establishment of his Davidic kingdom in an eternal form upon earth. He therefore understands that God personally must come to dwell on earth. This is envisaged in the vision of Yahweh dwelling in a restored Zion, named "Yahweh is there" (<a href='B:330 48:35'>Eze 48:35</a>); and is the picture presented in the final chapters of Revelation.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, I have called on You. Come to me quickly! Listen to my voice when I call to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God's voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>). </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my prayer be set before You like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Set before" is also "established", and the idea my be "with the regularity of the incense". Regular prayer is part of the discipline of the spiritual life, and David is a great example in thIsa. It seems David prayed with the literal lifting up of his hands, seeing this as the essence of sacrifice. He perhaps learnt this whilst in exile from the sanctuary under persecution by Saul. He perceived that the essence of sacrifice was the lifting up of our hearts and words to God:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Set a watch, Yahweh, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As we see throughout Psalms 119, David believed that God could grant spirituality and self control; the Old Testament equivalent to the work and possibility of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. David recognized that he had anger and temper issues, and asks God to act as a guard [a "watch"] over his mouth, lest any bad words come out.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity; don’t let me eat of their delicacies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :3; <a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>, David believed that God could act deep within the psychology or heart of man, to incline us toward righteousness and away from evil. This is how the Holy Spirit works today. Solomon believed the same (s:w. <a href='B:110 8:58'>1Ki 8:58</a>), but only in theory; for his Gentile wives inclined or turned away his heart from God (s:w. <a href='B:110 11:3'>1Ki 11:3</a>; <a href='B:110 11:9'>1Ki 11:9</a>). God will not turn our hearts anywhere we ourselves don't want to go. Solomon often appeals for us to incline our hearts to wisdom (s:w. <a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>; <a href='B:240 22:17'>Pro 22:17</a>), but he himself was inclined to apostasy (s:w. <a href='B:110 11:3'>1Ki 11:3</a>; <a href='B:110 11:9'>1Ki 11:9</a>). All his emphasis is upon the need to incline ourselves, whereas his father David trusted in the work of the Spirit to incline his heart to good and away from evil (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>; <a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a> etc:):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Incline" is the word used by David of how he himself inclined his heart to God's word (<a href='B:230 119:51'>Psa 119:51</a>; <a href='B:230 119:112'>Psa 119:112</a>; <a href='B:230 119:157'>Psa 119:157</a>). But David prayed that God would incline his heart towards His word (<a href='B:230 119:36'>Psa 119:36</a>) and away from sin (<a href='B:230 141:4'>Psa 141:4</a>). This is how the Holy Spirit works to this day- we are confirmed in the psychological attitudes we ourselves choose to have. The word is used of God's mighty "stretched out" arm and "strong hand" in human affairs (<a href='B:230 136:12'>Psa 136:12</a> and often in Isaiah). This powerful hand of God is at work in human hearts, confirming us in the psychological way in which we ourselves wish to go. In this sense God turns or inclines the heart where He wishes (<a href='B:240 21:1'>Pro 21:1</a>). Solomon in the Proverbs places all the emphasis upon a person themselves in their own strength inclining their heart toward his teaching (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:5'>Pro 4:5</a>; <a href='B:240 4:20'>Pro 4:20</a>; <a href='B:240 5:1'>Pro 5:1</a>). He fails to appreciate what David his father did; that God's word is His word and not that of the human channel through which it comes. And he totally puts the emphasis upon human strength of will, self inclination towards God's word, rather than perceiving as David did that without God's psychological help in this, we shall ultimately fail. As Solomon himself did.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whatever the primary reference of this Psalm, it is a reworking of David's feelings when persecuted by Saul and likewise on the run from him. For circumstances repeat in our lives, and it would be natural for David to reconsider Psalms written at the time of one exile and apply them to another, just as these Psalms were also used for others in their times of exile. "Wickedness" is the word used about Saul's persecution in <a href='B:90 24:13'>1Sa 24:13</a>.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the righteous strike me, it is a kindness; let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was open to Nathan's "rebuke", which was not given in God's anger so much as in His appeal for David to accept His grace. The allusion is to "the oil of welcome, such as was poured upon the head of favored guests" (<a href='B:490 7:36'>Luk 7:36</a>); the hospitality culture of the day meant that a guest should not be insulted with criticism. But David turns all that around and says that he would welcome rebuke as a welcome.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let my head refuse it; and my prayer will be for them in their calamities-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we see God being asked to directly grant spirituality and Godly attitudes. LXX: "The righteous shall chasten me with mercy, and reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head: for yet shall my prayer also be in their pleasures". David's habit of praying for Saul in his calamities in stated specifically in <a href='B:230 35:13'>Psa 35:13</a>.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When their judges are thrown over the cliff, then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Throwing off a cliff was a punishment for apostasy, as the Jews tried to do to the Lord Jesus. David was perhaps imagining how Saul and his government would come to an end; and then the prophetic words about David becoming king would be accepted as true. "Pleasant" is AV "sweet"; <a href='B:230 119:103'>Psa 119:103</a> records David praising the prophetic word about his kingship (see note there) as being sweet.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As when one ploughs and breaks up the earth, our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that stones were visible on the surface of newly ploughed soil, and so were the bones of God's true people. This has perhaps been added by the exiles when this Psalm of David was appropriated by them. But it was those same bones which would be revived at the restoration, according to the dry bones vision of Ezekiel 37.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>but my eyes are on You, Yahweh, the Lord. In You I take refuge; don’t leave my soul destitute-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although God's people were to be slain in heaps (:7), the psalmist asks that he shall be saved. It is a characteristic of the faithful that they hold on even when all God's people have fallen away. It sometimes seems only a minority of a minority may finally be saved. Heb. "do not pour out my soul". The Lord's servant was to pour out his soul unto death (<a href='B:290 53:12'>Isa 53:12</a>). David wanted to be king as promised, and not a sacrifice.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, from the traps of the workers of iniquity-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that the snares laid would have meant going astray from God's precepts. The initial reference may have been to Saul laying snares for David through getting him to marry his daughters and thereby seeking to kill him; and in <a href='B:230 119:110'>Psa 119:110</a> David is proud he has not fallen into those snares. But that Psalm finishes with David saying bluntly that he has "gone astray" (<a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a>), as if to say that earlier&nbsp; he had far overrated his own obedience to God's law.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the wicked fall together into their own nets, while I pass on by- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is part of a major Biblical theme that the wicked are self-condemned, more than being condemned by God as it were against their own will. In <a href='B:230 140:10'>Psa 140:10</a> David envisages his opponents as being "Cast into fire, into miry pits, no more to rise"; pictures of final condemnation at the last day. But effectively, they had fallen into that which they had themselves wished upon David. Those who condemn, or seek to condemn, will themselves be condemned (<a href='B:470 7:1'>Mat 7:1</a>).</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A contemplation by David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was sensitive to words, and here recalls and edits the words he remembers praying in the cave. We recall that there he had the opportunity to kill Saul, but didn't. See on <a href='B:230 143:1'>Psa 143:1</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I cry with my voice to Yahweh, with my voice I ask Yahweh for mercy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We assume it was imperative for David in the cave to keep quiet. But in his heart he had cried loudly to God "for mercy". He felt Saul could have found him and murdered him at any time; he had no human escape, apart from to trust in Yahweh. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I pour out my complaint before Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, 'I gush out my babbling'. He was so frightened and emotionally broken down that his spirit or mind was overwhelmed (:3). And yet there in the cave he felt he was before Yahweh, in His very presence.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I tell Him my troubles-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst God knows our exact position in life, it is part of childlike relationship with Him to tell Him our troubles. There in the cave with no human way of escape, David did just thIsa.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When my spirit was overwhelmed within me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I noted on :2 how David felt that 'I gush out my babbling' to God. He was so frightened and emotionally broken down that his spirit or mind was overwhelmed.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You knew my path-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although this Psalm is David's prayer in the cave, it has clearly been edited by David afterwards. He felt there was no path out of his problem, for the cave had no exit. But God knew a path for him, as he now can later reflect. And we have all been in such situations.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the way in which I walk, they have hidden a snare for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that the snares laid would have meant going astray from God's precepts. The initial reference may have been to Saul laying snares for David through getting him to marry his daughters and thereby seeking to kill him; and in <a href='B:230 119:110'>Psa 119:110</a> David is proud he has not fallen into those snares. But that Psalm finishes with David saying bluntly that he has "gone astray" (<a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a>), as if to say that earlier&nbsp; he had far overrated his own obedience to God's law.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Look on my right hand and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me, no one cares for my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the cave, David did have some of his men with him. But he feels, as he looks to the men on his right hand [the place of supposed help] that they were with him from their own agenda, not because they were really concerned for him or could "deliver" him (s:w. "concerned"). The cave had been his refuge, but that refuge was now his trap; or so it seemed:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I cried to You, Yahweh. I said, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He had made the cave his refuge, and it had become his trap. But he doesn't give up hope that God can still be his ultimate refuge.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><h2>Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David knew that he and his men couldn't fight their way out of the cave, and likely suspected his men would hand him over to Saul in return for their own lives being spared. He was indeed in desperate need, snared in that cave, with the only way out blocked by Saul and his men. That he didn't give up hope but begged God to somehow deliver him is a fair indication of his great faith. It was surely motivated by his respect for God's prophetic word, that somehow, some day, this too would pass and he would be king and Saul would be removed.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks to Your name. The righteous will surround me, for You will be good to me- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The cave had become a prison for David. He begs for deliverance by some miracle, so that he could praise God for it; and instead of being surrounded by men of very doubtful loyalty (see on :4), he believed the prophetic word that one day he would be king, surrounded in government by "the righteous". His faith that he would be rescued from such a dead end, no exit situation is remarkable.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Most of the Psalms have clear reference to the exiles, and being brought out of a hopeless position in prison is an image used by the restoration prophets. And David's feelings likewise have ultimate application to the Lord Jesus. As He hung in the darkness of the cross, He too was depressed by the weight of His mental burden, a burden so great it must have pushed His brain to maximum neurological capacity. The spirit of the crucified Christ is here; His hope that "the righteous shall compass me about" is used in the famous crucifixion Psalm of <a href='B:230 22:22'>Psa 22:22</a>. The Lord Jesus poured out His soul unto death; "he was taken away by distress" (<a href='B:290 53:12'>Isa 53:12</a>; <a href='B:290 53:8'>Isa 53:8</a> AVmg:) suggests that it was the mental crisis in the brain of the Lord on the cross which resulted in His death. This is why Pilate marvelled that He died so quickly. It is evident from this that the physical process of crucifixion did not kill the Lord, but rather the heart burst (both figurative and literal) which it brought upon Him. Do we not sense that striving in our minds as we fellowship His sufferings? Surely we do, but from a great distance.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We have here another example of the pairing of Psalms, for Psalms 143 has many points of contact with David's prayer when hemmed in within the cave of Psalms 142.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In Your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David trapped within the cave apparently faced certain death. But he pleads with God to be faithful- to His prophetic word that David would be king and Saul would be deposed. In this sense, faith came by hearing the word of God (<a href='B:520 10:17'>Rom 10:17</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no man living is righteous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>facing apparent death, and in great panic and psychological crisis (see on :7), David assumed that the prophetic word that he would live to become king wasn't going to be fulfilled because he had sinned. The Lord Jesus passed through a similar crisis on the cross when He felt forsaken by God. And so David asks for every grace to be shown to him. Closer, more rational analysis however reveals a weakness in his argument; he seems to be saying that because all men sin, and none are justified, therefore God shouldn't judge David for his sins. That doesn't follow, but we can put this down to his understandable panic in extremity.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the enemy pursues my soul; he has struck my life down to the ground-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Struck" is s:w. "broken". This is clearly relevant to the actions of the Babylonians (s:w. <a href='B:310 3:34'>Lam 3:34</a>). But it was true also of David's enemies within Israel, especially Saul, who is likely in view here, having chased him into the cave where he now expected to be struck down at any moment. The truth is that the exiles were broken because they had broken each other in pieces (<a href='B:290 3:15'>Isa 3:15</a> s:w:). Yet that brokenness was intended to bring forth the humility which would enable them to repent and be restored (s:w. <a href='B:290 57:15'>Isa 57:15</a> "contrite"). And it was the suffering servant as representative of Israel who was broken, as their representative (s:w. <a href='B:290 53:5'>Isa 53:5</a>; <a href='B:290 53:10'>Isa 53:10</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in the dark cave, which he understood as a kind of tomb hewn in the rock, felt as if he were already dead, so apparently certain was it that Saul would find and slay him.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here we have an exact repetition of David's prayer in the cave recorded in <a href='B:230 142:3'>Psa 142:3</a>. I suggested on :1 that Psalms 143 is paired with Psalms 142 and refers to the same time. His spirit failed, he was mentally broken down, 'I gush out my babbling', he remembered (<a href='B:230 142:2'>Psa 142:2</a>). He was so frightened and emotionally broken down that his spirit or mind was overwhelmed (<a href='B:230 142:3'>Psa 142:3</a>). The relevance to the exiles is that the land was left "desolate" whilst they were in exile (s:w. <a href='B:30 26:34'>Lev 26:34</a>; <a href='B:140 36:21'>2Ch 36:21</a> etc:), as was the temple (<a href='B:140 7:21'>2Ch 7:21</a>) and the heart of the exiles themselves, just like David at this time (<a href='B:300 4:9'>Jer 4:9</a> s:w:). But God could save them from such extremity, if they had David's faith, and restore them according to His prophetic word and intention with them. Jeremiah uses the same word translated "overwhelmed" to describe what happened to God's people under the hand of the Babylonians (<a href='B:310 2:11-12'>Lam 2:11-12</a>; <a href='B:310 2:19'>Lam 2:19</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I remember the days of old, I meditate on all Your doings, I contemplate the work of Your hands-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recalls in his own life "of old", in his youth and childhood, how God had saved him by grace; and asks for this to be continued. We should never therefore disregard God's hand at work in our childhood and youth. But as in <a href='B:230 77:12'>Psa 77:12</a>, the Divine work and doings being considered are also His historical grace to His people. For all His work for Israel was by grace, seeing that for the most part they didn't strongly believe in Him and were unfaithful to His covenant; and yet He had still worked for them so mightily, towards their salvation.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I spread forth my hands to You. My soul thirsts for You, like a parched land. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the cave that night, David would have likely been unable to drink. He was thirsty, dry as the parched land outside the cave. And in the silence of the cave that night, he spread forth his hands to God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And again these things look forward to the experience of the Lord Jesus. The thirsty land surrounding Him on the cross represented spiritually barren Israel (<a href='B:290 53:1'>Isa 53:1</a>; <a href='B:230 42:1-3'>Psa 42:1-3</a>); but the Lord Jesus so took His people upon Him, into His very soul, that His soul became a thirsty land (<a href='B:230 143:6'>Psa 143:6</a>); He felt as spiritually barren as they were, so close was His representation of us, so close was He to sinful man, so fully did He enter into the feelings of the sinner. In the same way as Christ really did feel forsaken as Israel were because of their sins, so He suffered thirst, both literally and spiritually, which was a punishment for Israel's sins.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in the cave that night (see on :1) needed immediate answers and deliverance. His spirit failed, he was mentally broken down, 'I gush out my babbling', he remembered (<a href='B:230 142:2'>Psa 142:2</a>). He was so frightened and emotionally broken down that his spirit or mind was overwhelmed (<a href='B:230 142:3'>Psa 142:3</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t hide Your face from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Recognizing the existence of the new and old men within him, Paul can speak in Romans 7 as if he is two different people; “I myself serve the law of God”, but “my flesh” serves sin. Likewise David asked God not to hide his face from him, David personally, (<a href='B:230 27:9'>Psa 27:9</a>; <a href='B:230 69:17'>Psa 69:17</a>; <a href='B:230 102:2'>Psa 102:2</a>; <a href='B:230 143:7'>Psa 143:7</a>), but to hide His face from David’s sins (<a href='B:230 51:9'>Psa 51:9</a>). And one wonders whether the way the records of the Lord’s temptations are written implies some similar recognition by the Spirit of the two ‘men’ within the Lord.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There in the cave it would have seemed as if David was alive in the pit or tomb of the grave. He was earnestly begging for his life to be saved.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Cause me to hear Your grace in the morning, for I trust in You. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This has obvious reference to David lying silent and unable to move that night in the cave (see on :1). He begged for deliverance in the morning, by grace alone. For he had no human way out. And now, as he writes up his experience in this Psalm, he makes this his prayer every night, as it had been that desperate night in the cave.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David expected to be caused to hear God's lovingkindness every morning, and to be taught the way he should take- all because he would every morning 'lift up his soul unto God'. All this was the pattern of daily life for the Lord Himself, who was noted for rising up early and praying (<a href='B:480 1:35'>Mar 1:35</a>). <a href='B:290 50:4'>Isa 50:4</a> prophesies of the Lord Jesus that morning by morning, God awoke His ear "to learn as a disciple". That last phrase is surely to signal the intended similarities between the Lord's path of growth, and that of all disciples.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as is true today, and as is often mentioned in Psalms 119, God is willing to operate directly on the hearts of men in a way over and above His written word. David realized this, and asked to be taught and shown God's ways (<a href='B:230 25:4'>Psa 25:4</a>; <a href='B:230 143:8'>Psa 143:8</a>). "Cause" is the usual word for 'to know'. Knowledge in its ultimate, spiritual sense is not attained simply by reading or hearing the text of the Bible; not that I am at all decrying that. But there is a higher, Divine hand at work in making us know Divine knowledge. Moses had prayed the same words in <a href='B:20 33:13'>Exo 33:13</a>: "Show me [make me to know] Your way, that I may know [s:w. "show"] You [and] find grace in Your sight". The gift of knowledge, in the Hebraic sense of relationship, is related to God's grace. That knowledge which is in view is not the same as technical, theological knowledge. Moses' prayer was answered; the same words are used in saying that God "made known His ways to Moses" (<a href='B:230 103:7'>Psa 103:7</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me, Yahweh, from my enemies. I flee to You to hide me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had fled into the cave for deliverance and hiding, but it had turned out to be his snare and prison (see on :1). And so he desperately flees, in his mind, to Yahweh as his true hiding place, begging to be hidden from Saul, sleeping only a short distance away from him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David responded to their seeking of him by seeking God more. He uses the language of the hunt and chase to describe how he was drawing closer to God: "My soul followeth hard after thee" (<a href='B:230 63:8'>Psa 63:8</a>; Psalms 63 is a wilderness psalm, see title). “Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul::. let all those that seek thee rejoice" (<a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 40:16'>Psa 40:16</a>). In this sense, David felt he wasn't fleeing from&nbsp; his enemies as much as fleeing to God: "Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies (from whom he was running): I flee unto thee to hide me" (<a href='B:230 143:9'>Psa 143:9</a> AV). Both David and Jesus had a real sense of direction, they could see that their mental, emotional and physical sufferings were leading them towards an altogether higher relationship with the Father. They took those sufferings as an almost welcome push towards the Father. They had a sure sense of spiritual direction in all their afflictions; this accounts for the human loneliness which they both felt.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's begging for deliverance was because he vowed to use his subsequent life to do God's will, and he asks God to teach him thIsa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your Spirit is good; lead me in the land of uprightness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David asked: “Let thy good spirit / Angel lead me in the plain country” (<a href='B:230 143:10'>Psa 143:10</a> RVmg:)- as if he realized that there were Angels / spirits of evil, as well as of good. Thus we too pray not to be lead into temptation- but rather, lead in the way of life. Angels do lead us in life, but they can lead us in either the downward or the upward spiral. In the immediate context, David trapped in the cave (see on :1) longed to be outside of it, in the open country again:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Revive me, Yahweh, for Your name’s sake. In Your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in the cave had no way of being 'brought out' (see on :1), apart from by God's direct intervention. He asks for this not because of his own righteousness, but throws himself upon God's grace.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In Your loving kindness, cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul, for I am Your servant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are bidden praise God for smiting David's enemies, and also for smiting the firstborn babies of Egypt, because this is a sign of His eternal mercy (Psa. 138:10 cp. 143:12). This is proof enough that His view of mercy and ours are quite different. If as suggested on :1 this Psalm is David's reflections within the cave, then his request for God to cut off his enemies is all the more appropriate. For he had the chance to cut off Saul's life and refused to, exactly because of his faith in this Divine promise- that God and not man would see to thIsa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David often talks about the perishing [s:w:] of his enemies (<a href='B:230 9:3'>Psa 9:3</a>; <a href='B:230 9:6'>Psa 9:6</a>; <a href='B:230 41:5'>Psa 41:5</a>; <a href='B:230 143:12'>Psa 143:12</a>). But in <a href='B:230 92:9'>Psa 92:9</a> he speaks of them as God's enemies. He considers his enemies to be God's enemies. That may well have been true, seeing that God did indeed become the enemy of Saul, who was clearly the great enemy of David in his earlier life (<a href='B:90 28:16'>1Sa 28:16</a>). But we must sound a caveat; because it can be that those within the body of believers whom we consider our enemies are in fact loved by God. We cannot automatically assume in times of inter-personal strife that our enemies are also God's enemies.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The LXX title says that it concerns the fight with Goliath of 1 Samuel 17.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to battle-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David gives full credit to Yahweh for the victory. The mention of hands and fingers is appropriate to his use of a sling to kill Goliath, but he attributes his skill to Divine training. He had likely learned to sling stones with accuracy from a child. He attributes that training to Yahweh, showing that God is active in preparing human life from early childhood experiences. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>my source of grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recognizes that the victory was through Divine grace, not his bravery or skill as a slinger.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My fortress, my high tower, my deliverer-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These are all defensive terms. And yet David is presented as the bold aggressor who proactively seeks out the duel with Goliath. He did so refusing all human armour; because he saw Yahweh as his defence. David sees that Yahweh will be a "high tower" or place of refuge at the day of future judgment (<a href='B:230 9:8-9'>Psa 9:8-9</a>, quoted about this in <a href='B:510 17:31'>Act 17:31</a>). But David feels God has been like this to him in this life (<a href='B:100 22:3'>2Sa 22:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:2'>Psa 18:2</a>; <a href='B:230 46:7'>Psa 46:7</a>; <a href='B:230 48:3'>Psa 48:3</a>; <a href='B:230 59:9'>Psa 59:9</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16-17'>Psa 59:16-17</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:22'>Psa 94:22</a>; <a href='B:230 144:2'>Psa 144:2</a>). He therefore sees a seamless experience in his relationship with God in this life, and at the future day of judgment. God saves us right now and is a refuge for us in countless life situations; and this is the guarantee that He will be likewise at the last day.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My shield and He in whom I take refuge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again a reference to his refusal to take Saul's shield and defensive armour with him into battle.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who subdues my people under me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's victory over Goliath was what brought the people under him. But instead of basking in any personal glory about that, David thanks God for having given that to him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, what is man, that You care for him? Or the son of man, that You think of him?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This repeats <a href='B:230 8:4'>Psa 8:4</a>, and as commented there, that Psalm is clearly, as here, David's thoughts as he marvelled at how he had been used to achieve the victory over Goliath. But as explained on <a href='B:230 8:3'>Psa 8:3</a>, he becomes a symbol of the Lord Jesus, the ultimate "son of man". David is here alluding to the earlier words of Job. Probably the only extant scripture at David's time was the book of Job and the Pentateuch, which explains why he so often alludes to the book of Job. Job came to deeply marvel at the fact that despite God's highness, He tests us and meditates upon us every moment of our lives: "What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?::. that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?" (<a href='B:220 7:17-18'>Job 7:17-18</a>). These words became the basis of the thoughts of the Lord Jesus as prophesied here. Like Job, the Lord learnt from the depth of His own inner struggles about the moral greatness of the Father. So even God's own Son, peerless and spotless lamb of God that He was even in mortal nature, recognized that such was God's moral splendour that He was surprised that during His mortality, God was so intensely interested in Him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As God was "mindful of" (<a href='B:230 8:4'>Psa 8:4</a>) or 'cared for' David and thereby all men in Israel through the victory granted over Goliath, so David urged that in response, they should be "mindful" of God (s:w. <a href='B:130 16:12'>1Ch 16:12</a>; <a href='B:130 16:15'>1Ch 16:15</a>). But "mindful" implies 'to remember', and is a term used for answer to prayer (<a href='B:70 16:28'>Jdg 16:28</a>; <a href='B:90 1:11'>1Sa 1:11</a> and often). David is acknowledging that he had prayed for victory, and been granted it- but felt unworthy to have received such an answer.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Man is like a breath, his days are like a shadow that passes away-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Breath" is the word for "vanity". So this may not be a general reflection upon all humanity, but upon the unrighteous, upon whom the judgment of :5,6 is to come. The word is used in <a href='B:230 94:11'>Psa 94:11</a> "Yahweh knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile". "Vanity" is the word commonly used of idolatry. And this indeed is where modern day idolatry is committed- through having an empty mind, filled with vanity, rather than the things of God's Spirit. And yet all the same, the parallel in Psalms 8 seems to suggest that David marvelled that God had wrought so much through him, a mere mortal man. And his allusions to the language of idolatry and apostasy could effectively be saying that 'Seeing I am a mere mortal, there but for God's grace go I, I am not so much higher than those apostates'. An attitude we all need to remember as we mix with those others would consider the dregs of our societies.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Part Your heavens, Yahweh, and come down; touch the mountains, and they will smoke-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems at this point that David is praying for a dramatic deliverance from apparently certain death, and he has reminded himself in :1-4 of the victory and salvation granted him over Goliath as an inspiration. He has done this previously in this section of the Psalms; see on <a href='B:230 140:7'>Psa 140:7</a>. He asks for a theophany to save him, no less that what happened at Sinai (s:w. <a href='B:20 19:18-20'>Exo 19:18-20</a>), when again God had as it were made the mountains smoke by His touch. We marvel at David's spiritual ambition, unafraid to ask for a similar theophany to save him. And he reflects at the end of his life that this prayer was in fact answered (<a href='B:230 18:9'>Psa 18:9</a>). The relevance to the exiles is that Yahweh was prepared to "bow" (s:w. "stretch out") the heavens and "come down" to restore the exiles; but they chose not to make use of that huge potential (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:22'>Isa 40:22</a>; <a href='B:290 42:5'>Isa 42:5</a>; <a href='B:290 64:1'>Isa 64:1</a>):&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Throw out lightning and scatter them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the request for a saving theophany of the magnitude of what was seen at Sinai; see on :5. At the end of his life, David was thankful that this prayer had in fact been answered (<a href='B:230 18:14'>Psa 18:14</a>). David rejoices that Divine "arrows" were sent to destroy his enemies (<a href='B:230 7:13'>Psa 7:13</a>; <a href='B:230 18:14'>Psa 18:14</a>; <a href='B:230 45:5'>Psa 45:5</a>; <a href='B:230 64:7'>Psa 64:7</a>; <a href='B:230 144:6'>Psa 144:6</a>), in fulfilment of God's promise to do so to the sinful within Israel (<a href='B:50 32:23'>Deu 32:23</a>; <a href='B:50 32:42'>Deu 32:42</a>). But David was to later realize that those same arrows had been fired by God into him in judgment for his sin (<a href='B:230 38:2'>Psa 38:2</a>). This realization was perhaps to help David understand that his rejoicing in Divine arrows of judgment being fired at his enemies had not been mature; for he himself had to realize that he was worthy of the same.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Send out Your arrows and defeat them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again the prayer was answered and David thanks God for this at the end of his life (s:w. <a href='B:230 18:14'>Psa 18:14</a>). We cannot locate any particular historical incident of fulfilment; perhaps it was too personal and wonderful to be recorded. Just as a Christian man or woman might feel it inappropriate to record God's most dramatic salvation of them when they write their autobiography. The shooting or sending forth of arrows is only elsewhere used of God doing so against an apostate Judah (s:w. <a href='B:330 5:16'>Eze 5:16</a>). The phrase is also repeatedly used of how Jonathan shot arrows to signal to David that his father Saul was going to try to kill him (<a href='B:90 20:20-22'>1Sa 20:20-22</a>). Perhaps the enemies in view are therefore Saul and his men.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Stretch out Your hand from above, rescue me and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "foreigners" may be literal Gentiles, represented as often by "waters". But I suggested on :6 that it is perhaps Saul and his men (such as Doeg, the Gentile Edomite) who may be initially in view. This would continue a major Biblical theme; that the apostate amongst God's people are as Gentiles. See on :8.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :5,6, Psalms 144 has many points of contact with Psalms 18, here to <a href='B:230 18:16'>Psa 18:16</a> "He sent from on high. He took me, He drew me out of many waters". At the end of his life, David felt his prayer of <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a> had indeed been answered. "Waters" are usually symbolic of armies or nations. David felt he had been surrounded and faced with certain death, but had been as it were airlifted to safety by God. The language here says that God has done this, but it is parallel with David's prayer for this to happen in <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a>. The triumphant song of Psalms 18 is therefore praise for the prayer of Psalms 144 being answered.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of deceit is more appropriate to the apostate within Israel than to Gentiles. See on :7. The mouths who spoke deceit and falsehood are often those of Saul and his men (see s:w. <a href='B:230 7:14'>Psa 7:14</a>; <a href='B:230 27:12'>Psa 27:12</a>; <a href='B:230 31:18'>Psa 31:18</a>; <a href='B:230 35:19'>Psa 35:19</a>; <a href='B:230 119:69'>Psa 119:69</a>; <a href='B:230 119:78'>Psa 119:78</a>; <a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a> etc:)&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will sing a new song to You, God, on a ten-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>stringed lyre I will sing praises to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the song of Psalms 18; see on :5-7. Even in the Old Testament, the idea of living in a spirit of newness of life is to be found. David six times invites us to sing with him “a new song” (<a href='B:230 33:3'>Psa 33:3</a>; <a href='B:230 40:3'>Psa 40:3</a>; <a href='B:230 96:1'>Psa 96:1</a>; <a href='B:230 98:1'>Psa 98:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:9'>Psa 144:9</a>; <a href='B:230 149:1'>Psa 149:1</a> cp. <a href='B:290 42:10'>Isa 42:10</a>). Invariably these songs are associated with the experience of God’s redemption (cp. <a href='B:730 5:9'>Rev 5:9</a>). Obviously those ‘new songs’ were intended to be repeatedly sung. Our regular experience of forgiveness and redemption should urge us onwards in the spirit of ‘newness of life’. Like Paul we die daily with the Lord, and the power of His resurrection life likewise daily breaks out in us.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are He who gives salvation to kings, who rescues David His servant from the deadly sword-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again the allusion is to the victory over the deadly sword of Goliath. David is praying for a dramatic deliverance from apparently certain death, and he has reminded himself in :1-4 of the victory and salvation granted him over Goliath as an inspiration. He has done this previously in this section of the Psalms; see on <a href='B:230 140:7'>Psa 140:7</a>. We note how David on one hand recognizes that he is indeed a king, but more than that, Yahweh's servant. In the thinking of his time, kings didn't need salvation. They were themselves seen as saviours, self sufficient. But David broke this paradigm of thinking, considering himself to be the humble king.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This repeats :7,8, where I suggested that the people in view are not necessarily Gentiles but Saul, acting as a Gentile, and whose entourage included Gentiles like Doeg the Edomite. "Redeem / deliver me from the hand::." is again a quotation from Jacob's words when he found his relative Esau [not a complete Gentile, although acting like one] barring his path back home (<a href='B:10 32:11'>Gen 32:11</a>; <a href='B:10 32:30'>Gen 32:30</a>). And the word is used of David's desire for deliverance from Saul (<a href='B:90 26:24'>1Sa 26:24</a>); and yet this was a redemption unappreciated by him as it ought to have been (<a href='B:100 12:7'>2Sa 12:7</a>). Finally David recognized that this prayer was answered (<a href='B:100 22:18'>2Sa 22:18</a>; <a href='B:100 22:49'>2Sa 22:49</a>). As David had earlier prayed for redemption / deliverance from Saul and his enemies (<a href='B:230 31:15'>Psa 31:15</a>; <a href='B:230 59:1'>Psa 59:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a>), he would later pray for redemption / deliverance from his sins (<a href='B:230 39:8'>Psa 39:8</a>; <a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then our sons will be like well-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>nurtured plants, our daughters like corner stones carved to adorn a palace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If indeed Saul and his followers are in view in :11 (see note there), then this will be David's anticipation of what the kingdom of God in Israel would be like when he became king and Saul was deposed, as had been promised by Samuel. This vision of that Davidic kingdom didn't fully come about, partly because of David's own imperfections; but it looks ahead to how things will be in the ultimate Davidic kingdom of the Lord Jesus. Solomon and David's other sons were hardly like "well nurtured plants". The potential was that David's sons would be "planted" eternally (s:w. <a href='B:100 7:10'>2Sa 7:10</a>), but this only came finally true in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. God's people were indeed "planted" in the land (<a href='B:230 80:8'>Psa 80:8</a>) but were uprooted; and the prophecies only come true in the person of the Lord Jesus who is as the plant which grew in the dry land (<a href='B:230 80:15'>Psa 80:15</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our barns will be full, filled with all kinds of provision; our sheep will bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :12, this is a picture of the kingdom which David hoped to establish after the death of Saul. It is expressed in terms of the blessings for obedience to the covenant; and throughout Psalms 119 David had vowed to be personally obedient to the laws of God which formed the old covenant. But he was overconfident of both his own obedience and that of Israel. And so as explained on :12, these things are reapplied to the final reestablishment of the Davidic kingdom by the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our oxen will pull heavy loads, there will be no breaking in and no going away, and no crying in our streets-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is to the breaking in of the Philistines upon Israel and their going away in flight from them, and the crying in the streets after the Philistines had sacked the Israelite villages. This would now be no more, thanks to David's victory. But this vision of the Davidic kingdom didn't last and didn't even fully come about. See on :11,12.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This kingdom of God on earth under David's rulership was indeed the ideal projection of how God's Kingdom in Israel could be. But the people didn't retain Yahweh is their God in a meaningful sense, and so its realization was precluded; it will only come fully true in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus, which will be a restoration and extension of the Davidic kingdom, with Him reigning eternally on David's throne. This is indeed "the Hope of Israel":&nbsp;</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A praise Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This psalm is alphabetic, like other Psalms, but the letter nun is omitted. It is good homework for the enthusiast to work out why. The Psalm appears to be David looking forward to how his kingdom would be once he had taken over from Saul as promised; in this sense it follows on from the end of Psalms 144, which is all about thIsa. However, as noted on <a href='B:230 144:12-15'>Psa 144:12-15</a>, this didn't come about as David hoped and envisioned. But it will do so in the future Kingdom of God, where the Lord Jesus will sit upon David's throne and rule over a revived Davidic Kingdom. This Psalm therefore becomes a prophecy of God's future Kingdom, and praise for how it shall be. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will exalt You my God as the King. I will praise Your name forever and ever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted above, David is looking ahead to his kingdom becoming the Kingdom of God which would be eternal, with him praising God forever. And David emphasizes that God and not himself is the ultimate king of the Kingdom. Samuel had well instilled this into him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Every day I will praise You, I will extol Your name forever and ever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was David's vision of the Davidic kingdom; praising God's name daily for ever, implying he would live endless days.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is unsearchable-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The eternity of David's praise (:2) is related to the unsearchable greatness of God which he is praising. Paul appears to allude to this in <a href='B:520 11:33'>Rom 11:33</a>, where the unsearchable greatness refers to the greatness of God's grace in saving sinners. David is quoting <a href='B:220 5:9'>Job 5:9</a>; <a href='B:220 9:10'>Job 9:10</a>, which also talk of God's unsearchable grace in human salvation. Job and the Pentateuch were likely the main scriptures known by David. The same unsearchable nature of God's grace was available to the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:28'>Isa 40:28</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>One generation will commend Your works to another, and will declare Your mighty acts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is how David imagined his kingdom being. God’s word is a living word. Unlike other history, we can see the intense personal relevance of all God’s past dealings with men. David at times gets ecstatic for what God had done at the Red Sea; one generation would tell accounts like the Passover story to another, they too would sing as Miriam had done (<a href='B:230 145:4-7'>Psa 145:4-7</a>). The "works" retold would be of God's saving grace; that will be our talk throughout eternity, and we should begin living the Kingdom life now.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Of the glorious majesty of Your honour, of Your wondrous works, I will meditate-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is defined in :12 as the glory of God's Kingdom. David was about to become king as promised by Samuel, and he hopes that his kingdom shall be God's Kingdom. He is commendably full of thought and meditation of God's Kingdom rather than his own; and there we have an abiding principle. But David used the same words in <a href='B:230 8:5'>Psa 8:5</a> when meditating upon his victory over Goliath; he had been crowned with glory and honour. That victory was the basis upon which he became king, in the eyes of Israel; and he meditates how the glory and honour given him was in fact God's and not his own. The glory and majesty of the kingship and kingdom was "laid upon" him (<a href='B:230 21:5'>Psa 21:5</a> s:w:). But David's kingdom didn't fully become God's Kingdom on earth, and the final glory, honour and majesty will be in the future Kingdom of God on earth, when the Lord Jesus reestablishes David's kingdom and reigns on his throne (s:w. <a href='B:290 35:2'>Isa 35:2</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Men will speak of the might of Your awesome acts; I will declare Your greatness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It was David who was doing just this, especially through his Psalms. But he imagines the Kingdom of God as being a time when all men will have his uninhibited desire to speak and declare God's greatness.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They will utter the memory of Your great goodness and will sing of Your righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :6, it was David who was the singer, and he looked forward to all men having his same attitude to open and uninhibited praise. Hence this Psalm, which was intended for all men to sing even now. Thus David consciously sets himself up as the parade example to all who shall be in God's Kingdom.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This repeats Yahweh's declaration of His Name to Moses, when He listed His characteristics. We note that "grace" is His lead characteristic. And this will be the more apparent when we are in God's Kingdom, for this is how David imagines us praising God in the Kingdom.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is good to all, His tender mercies are over all His works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This will be the praise offered to God in His Kingdom. The struggle of modern man is indeed to believe that God "is good to all". Issues of the justice of God cloud so many attempted relationships with Him. Only in the Kingdom will we finally perceive that He has been good to all, and all His works are encoded with His tender grace. Those issues are left unresolved in this life in order to teach is humility, and trust that there will come a day when all shall be clarified and God's essential goodness and tenderness will be finally perceived. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All Your works will give thanks to You, Yahweh; Your saints will extol You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's "works" may refer to the natural creation, which will be endued with a capacity to praise Yahweh in His Kingdom. In this sense all of creation groans for that day of His Kingdom (<a href='B:520 8:22'>Rom 8:22</a>). But we can also interpret His "works" as a poetic parallel with His "saints", His people. We will then realize that God worked with us to prepare us for the final and eternal day of His Kingdom.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk about Your power-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we see David aware that his kingdom was essentially God's Kingdom; although he imagined his kingdom being established as God's Kingdom, he realizes that all the glory and power was related to God and not himself. The descriptions here of how life will be in God's Kingdom do not focus upon the physical environment which will then be experienced; but rather upon what we will be doing and thinking, particularly focusing upon our praise of Him. And the idea is that this Psalm is to be sung and felt today; we can begin to live the Kingdom life now. In that sense, as we learn in John's writings, we even now "have eternal life".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, the glory of the majesty of His kingdom-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :5. We note in this Psalm David's continual desire to tell others of God's majesty. David knew his sinfulness, he knew his reliance upon the grace of God, more and more as he got older. One would have thought that after the Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David's desire to teach others of God's ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two faced allegiance to Achish (<a href='B:90 27:8-12'>1Sa 27:8-12</a>). There is real stress upon this evangelistic fervour of David (<a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 57:9'>Psa 57:9</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 66:5'>Psa 66:5</a>; <a href='B:230 66:16'>Psa 66:16</a>; <a href='B:230 95:1'>Psa 95:1</a>; <a href='B:230 95:8'>Psa 95:8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:5-8'>Psa 96:5-8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:10'>Psa 96:10</a>; <a href='B:230 100:1-4'>Psa 100:1-4</a>; <a href='B:230 105:1-2'>Psa 105:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>; <a href='B:230 145:5-6'>Psa 145:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 145:12'>Psa 145:12</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:230 71:18'>Psa 71:18</a> records the "old and greyheaded" David pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others. David&nbsp;therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the pureness of God's grace. He didn't do this as some kind of self-help psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and God's mercy, and the wonderful willingness&nbsp;of God to extend this to men.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, Your dominion endures throughout all generations. Yahweh is faithful in all His words, and loving in all His deeds-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The particular "words" and "deeds" David has in view are that despite all odds, God's word of promise that he would become king and Saul deposed had come true. We see this faith expressed in this word so often in Psalms 119. David perceived that his kingdom would be everlasting, because it was to be God's Kingdom. And whilst that didn't come true in his times, it will do finally, because the Lord Jesus will reign over the restored Davidic Kingdom, on David's throne, for ever. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are bowed down-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalms were likely rewritten by David over the years. The upholding of the lowly could have referred initially to how he was exalted from the persecution under Saul, to be king of God's kingdom (s:w. <a href='B:230 3:5'>Psa 3:5</a>; <a href='B:230 37:17'>Psa 37:17</a>; <a href='B:230 37:24'>Psa 37:24</a>). It was at that time that he was "bowed down" (s:w. <a href='B:230 57:6'>Psa 57:6</a>). But it also has reference to how he was 'upheld' after he temporarily lost his kingdom after his 'fall' in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 55:12'>Psa 55:12</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The eyes of all wait for You; You give them their food in due season-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Wait for" or "wait upon" is a term used for serving or praising God. As the eyes of servants look to their master, so the eyes of God's people look to Him (<a href='B:230 123:2'>Psa 123:2</a>, and the eyes of David are described often in the Psalms as waiting upon God (e:g. <a href='B:230 121:1'>Psa 121:1</a>; <a href='B:230 123:1'>Psa 123:1</a>):&nbsp; David sees encoded in the natural creation a prophecy of how things shall eternally be in God's Kingdom; all turning their eyes to God as the animal creation subconsciously does.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You open Your hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "Thou openest thine hands, and fillest every living thing with pleasure". But the idea is that the natural creation turns its eyes to God (:15) and He opens His hand to satisfy their desire. As noted on :15, David sees in this a prophecy of how God's true people would turn their eyes to Him and have their desires satisfied by His opening hand. In the context of the exiles, the idea is that their desire for restoration would be fulfilled when they turned their eyes to their God. Opening the hand is an idiom for generous response to the cry of the poor (<a href='B:50 15:8'>Deu 15:8</a>; <a href='B:50 15:11'>Deu 15:11</a>); our generosity is to reflect the open handed generosity we have received and yet hope for from God:&nbsp; "Satisfy" translates&nbsp; word often used to describe how God's people in His land would be "filled" or satisfied"; if they were obedient to the covenant (<a href='B:50 6:11'>Deu 6:11</a>; <a href='B:50 8:10'>Deu 8:10</a>; <a href='B:50 8:12'>Deu 8:12</a>; <a href='B:50 11:15'>Deu 11:15</a> and very often).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is righteous in all His ways, and gracious in all His works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is evidenced in the natural creation (:15,16), and will finally be proven true in the lives of God's faithful people. Whether God was just / righteous and gracious was under question in the mindset of the exiles, as Ezekiel's prophecy reflects. And it has always been questioned. But David sees the Kingdom as a time when people shall finally accept and perceive His justice and grace. This means that the challenges arising from His perceived injustice is all designed to elicit our faith in the Kingdom; for according to David, there will be no answer to the questions until then. The very existence of those questions is therefore a test of our humility, the all important characteristic God looks for:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is near to all those who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, 'next to', 'neighbour / relative to'. This is how close God feels to the broken hearted and crushed; and conversely, how far He is from the self satisfied and self congratulatory, 'the strong' in secular terms. It is this feature of Yahweh which makes Him unique; no other God has this characteristic of 'nearness' (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:7'>Deu 4:7</a>). Only those who call upon Him “in truth”, with “unfeigned lips” will he heard (<a href='B:230 145:18'>Psa 145:18</a>). Men repeatedly ‘sought for’ the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:480 1:37'>Mar 1:37</a>; <a href='B:500 6:26'>Joh 6:26</a>), but He told them to truly seek Him (<a href='B:470 6:33'>Mat 6:33</a>; <a href='B:470 7:7'>Mat 7:7</a>; <a href='B:490 12:31'>Luk 12:31</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will fulfil the desire of those who fear Him, He will also hear their cry and save them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Often, “desire” is seen by God as prayer (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>; <a href='B:230 21:2'>Psa 21:2</a>; <a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>; <a href='B:230 59:10'>Psa 59:10</a>; <a href='B:230 92:11'>Psa 92:11</a>; <a href='B:230 140:8'>Psa 140:8</a>; <a href='B:230 145:19'>Psa 145:19</a>; <a href='B:470 18:32'>Mat 18:32</a>; <a href='B:520 10:1'>Rom 10:1</a>; <a href='B:690 5:15'>1Jn 5:15</a>). God interprets that inner desire as prayer, even if it is not articulated in specific requests. In the context of the exiles, the idea is that if they truly desired the restoration, it could come in response to their cry. But the problem was that the Kingdom was not their heart's desire.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on <a href='B:230 146:9'>Psa 146:9</a>. David felt preserved by God from Saul and his other enemies (<a href='B:90 30:23'>1Sa 30:23</a>; <a href='B:100 22:44'>2Sa 22:44</a>), because he had preserved or obeyed [s:w:] God's ways (<a href='B:100 22:22'>2Sa 22:22</a>; <a href='B:100 22:24'>2Sa 22:24</a>; <a href='B:230 18:21'>Psa 18:21</a>; <a href='B:230 18:23'>Psa 18:23</a>); whereas Saul didn't obey / preserve them and was destroyed (<a href='B:90 13:13-14'>1Sa 13:13-14</a>; <a href='B:130 10:13'>1Ch 10:13</a>). Hence <a href='B:230 145:20'>Psa 145:20</a>: "Yahweh preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy". Solomon's prophetic sonship of David was conditional upon him preserving or observing Yahweh's ways (<a href='B:110 2:4'>1Ki 2:4</a>; <a href='B:130 22:13'>1Ch 22:13</a>; <a href='B:140 7:17'>2Ch 7:17</a>); but he didn't preserve of observe them (<a href='B:110 11:10-11'>1Ki 11:10-11</a>); despite David praying that Solomon would be given a heart to observe them (<a href='B:130 29:19'>1Ch 29:19</a>). We can pray for God to work upon the hearts of others, but He will not force people against their own deepest will and heart position. Solomon stresses overmuch how God would keep or preserve the righteous (<a href='B:240 2:8'>Pro 2:8</a>; <a href='B:240 3:26'>Pro 3:26</a>), without recognizing the conditional aspect of thIsa. Why did Solomon go wrong? His Proverbs are true enough, but he stresses that obedience to his wisdom and teaching would preserve his hearers (<a href='B:240 4:4'>Pro 4:4</a>; <a href='B:240 6:22'>Pro 6:22</a>; <a href='B:240 7:1'>Pro 7:1</a>; <a href='B:240 8:32'>Pro 8:32</a>; <a href='B:240 15:5'>Pro 15:5</a>), preservation was through following the example of the wise (<a href='B:240 2:20'>Pro 2:20</a>); rather than stressing obedience to God's ways, and replacing David his father's simple love of God with a love of academic wisdom: "Yahweh preserves all those who love Him" (<a href='B:230 145:20'>Psa 145:20</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh; let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Several times in the Psalms, David’s poetry matches ‘myself’ with “all men”; he wants all men to share in his experience of Yahweh. He sees his thankful attitude in this life as characteristic of how all in God's Kingdom will eternally live. </p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yah! Praise Yahweh, my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A case can be made that the whole of book 3 of the Psalter (Psalms 73-89) was written / edited in Babylon. The Psalms of Korah (83-87) seem to reflect the longing of the righteous remnant in Babylon for the temple services. And it is just possible that the entire Psalter was re-edited there in Babylon, under inspiration- for so many Psalms have elements of appropriacy to the exiles in Babylon and the restoration. The LXX titles of Psalms 56 [“Concerning the people that were removed from the Sanctuary”] and 71 [“Of the sons of Jonadab, and the first that were taken captive”] speak for themselves. Likewise the LXX attributes Psalms 146-148 to Haggai and Zechariah. Although I suggest they are all initially Psalms of David, relevant to his experiences, but used under inspiration in these later contexts.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>While I live, I will praise Yahweh. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is why David and Hezekiah asked to be preserved from death exactly because this life is the time to praise the Lord, and that was impossible in death. We see their implicit understanding that death is unconsciousness, and not praising God in heaven afterwards.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t put your trust in princes, each merely a son of man in whom there is no help-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The parallel between princes and men is also found in <a href='B:230 118:8-9'>Psa 118:8-9</a>. Princes are but men, no more than men, and nothing compared to Yahweh. I noted on <a href='B:230 118:8'>Psa 118:8</a> the application to Hezekiah. Yet he failed in putting confidence in princes, turning to Egypt for help. Yet he repented and was rewarded for his sole faith in Yahweh alone. And yet afterwards, he put his confidence in the princes of Babylon. His intensity of faith was not maintained. The relevance to the exiles (see on :1) would have been that the "princes" like Cyrus who appeared to have brought about the restoration were not of themselves to be trusted. They were mere men, used by Yahweh. There may also be some reference to a Jewish leader who tried to free the exiles but not in God's strength.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His spirit departs, and he returns to the dust. In that very day, his thoughts perish-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, the Psalmists clearly understood death to be unconsciousness. Whilst a specific "son of man" may be in view in :3, that individual is only human and shares the experience of mortality which all humans share. This would explain why the ambiguous term "son of man" is used, referring both to an individual as well as generic humanity.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh his God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This hope and happiness is posited in contrast to the mortality which affects all humanity in :4. By implication, therefore, we can assume that the hope in view is that of resurrection to eternal life in a bodily form, the ultimate victory over human mortality. The only other person claiming Yahweh as his "hope" [with this particular Hebrew word] is David under persecution by Saul (<a href='B:230 119:166'>Psa 119:166</a>). In the context of the exiles (see on :1), the hope and help was in the ultimate restoration of the Kingdom and David's throne.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As so often in the Psalms, God's creative power is seen as the guarantee that he will keep "truth", His covenant and His promises. It is no hard thing for the creator of all to raise the death (:5) or restore the exiles and His Kingdom. Encoded in creation all around us we therefore see the absolute ability of God to fulfil His promises of salvation. Disbelief in His creative power will therefore mean disbelief in our personal salvation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The word is used for the loosing or freeing / deliverance of Joseph by the edict of a powerful king, which looked forward to the deliverance of the captives by the decree of Cyrus (s:w. <a href='B:230 105:20'>Psa 105:20</a>). "Freed" is "loosed". The exiles were prisoners who could have been loosed from Babylon- had they wished. The book of Esther makes clear that the Jews were far from impoverished prisoners. The imagery of being in prison and slavery is therefore in spiritual terms; and most of the exiles refused that great deliverance because they didn't perceive their condition. And that's exactly why folks today turn down the great offer of freedom made to them in Christ.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind, Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down, Yahweh loves the righteous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalms were likely rewritten by David over the years. The raising up of the bowed down could have referred initially to how he was exalted from the persecution under Saul, to be king of God's kingdom. It was at that time that he was "bowed down" (s:w. <a href='B:230 57:6'>Psa 57:6</a>). But he was to be a pattern for the exiles, if they followed his later example of repentance and restoration.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh preserves the strangers, He upholds the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked He turns upside down-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This parallels <a href='B:230 145:20'>Psa 145:20</a> [see note there]: "Yahweh preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy". Those who love God are the marginal, the foreigners and widows; and in preaching the Gospel in wealthier areas, this truth is realized time and again. In the context of the exiles (see on :1), this was appropriate; for the exiles were treated as strangers in Babylon, and after the horrors of the Babylonian invasion there would have been many widows and fatherless amongst them.</p>&nbsp;


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will reign forever; your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise Yah!- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The exiles (see on :1) were to praise God that the God of Zion, the temple mount, would have an eternal kingdom. They were directed not to rejoice in any particular Davidic king, but in Yahweh who was their ultimate king. But the Psalm was originally David's reflections on his own Kingdom; he correctly perceives Yahweh and not himself as the ultimate king of Israel.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David saw his sufferings as being bound up with those of Israel; those who hated him hated Zion, those who blessed him blessed Zion, and God's salvation of Israel was being expressed through God's deliverance of him in the daily vicissitudes of life; as God had chosen Zion, so He had David His servant; David's joy was Zion's joy, and her exaltation would be David's&nbsp; (<a href='B:230 51:18'>Psa 51:18</a>; <a href='B:230 69:35'>Psa 69:35</a>; <a href='B:230 87:2'>Psa 87:2</a>; <a href='B:230 106:5'>Psa 106:5</a>; <a href='B:230 121:3-4'>Psa 121:3-4</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>; <a href='B:230 128:5'>Psa 128:5</a>; <a href='B:230 146:10'>Psa 146:10</a>; <a href='B:230 149:2'>Psa 149:2</a>). This is how we are to make sense of suffering- by understanding that it plays a role in the salvation of others, and is part of a wider nexus of Divine operation. We suffer so that we may be able to minister the comfort we receive to others (<a href='B:540 1:4'>2Co 1:4</a>). Job likewise came to realize that his sufferings were not so much for his personal maturing, but for the teaching and salvation of the friends.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yah, for it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and fitting to praise Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The LXX attributes Psalms 146-148 to Haggai and Zechariah. According to the LXX titles, there were certain Psalms which were written for the dedication of the rebuilt temple, and others written by Haggai and Zechariah. They include: Psalms 96, 138, 147, 148. These all seem to speak as if the time of a glorious temple was to be the time of God’s Kingdom; this was the possibility, and it was the prevailing hope in the minds of the faithful minority. But the Psalms had to remain prophecies of the future day of Zion’s glory, for the temple was not rebuilt by the returned exiles according to the specifications of Ezekiel 40-48. Although I suggest they are all initially Psalms of David, relevant to his experiences, but used under inspiration in these later contexts.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh builds up Jerusalem, He gathers together the outcasts of Israel-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Jews returned from Babylon to the land of their own volition; but it was Yahweh who gathered them back, as if He called them almost of His volition rather than theirs. But the majority resisted this gathering of God and chose to remain in Babylon, for all the strength of His will for their restoration. Just as many do today in their rejection of the Gospel. Those who returned rebuilt Jerusalem; but actually, Yahweh did, through His confirmation of all the freewill effort of men like Haggai and Nehemiah (see on :1).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This verse is alluded to by the Lord in <a href='B:490 13:34'>Luk 13:34</a>, where He how He would fain have gathered together the children of Jerusalem, “but you would not”. The words of the Psalm speak as if this is what the Lord God is going to do. But Jesus understood it as being impossible of fulfilment if the outcast children would not allow themselves to be gathered. Likewise the statement that the Lord will build up Jerusalem was made in a restoration context; but again, it was dependent upon the Jews’ obedience for its fulfilment. God was and is potentially ready to work with us:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The broken hearted and wounded were the exiles; see on :1. But they were comfortable in Baylon-Persia, as the book of Esther confirms. They were no longer broken hearted, and took their healing from material prosperity rather than God's Spirit. They were warned in <a href='B:290 6:10'>Isa 6:10</a> that the potential healing of their hearts would not happen unless they were open to it. The broken hearted were those who had broken their own hearts in recognition of their sins as David had done (<a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:230 69:20'>Psa 69:20</a> s:w:), and had followed his path to repentance and restoration. But the exiles generally were impenitent; and so the good news announced to them of healing of broken hearts was rejected (s:w. <a href='B:290 61:1'>Isa 61:1</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by their names-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The stars which can't be numbered by man refer to the true seed of Abraham. Each have their own individual name in God's mind, reflecting His appreciation of their unique characteristics. The tragedy was that God called each of the exiles back to the land, desirous to fulfil the promises to Abraham; and the majority of them refused that call.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This infinite understanding develops the thought of :4; God knew every unique characteristics of His potential people, the stars of Abrahams potential seed. David sees his sins and their consequences as "without number", but he uses the same word for God's "infinite" or "without number" "understanding" (s:w. <a href='B:230 40:12'>Psa 40:12</a>). God understands better than we do the nature of our sins and their consequences. And His power to deal with all that&nbsp; is limitless, as David discovered in his experience with his sin. The exiles too had sinned, and God infinitely understood every nuance of that; but His power was such that He would restore each of them see on :4). But they rejected such mighty power, for He allows it to be circumscribed by human freewill.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh upholds the humble; He brings the wicked down to the ground-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Brings::. down" is the term often used for those humbled by God's condemnation, e:g. the proud who are brought low (<a href='B:100 22:28'>2Sa 22:28</a>; <a href='B:220 40:11'>Job 40:11</a>; <a href='B:230 75:7'>Psa 75:7</a>; <a href='B:230 147:6'>Psa 147:6</a>; <a href='B:240 29:23'>Pro 29:23</a> and very often in the prophets). And yet God by grace remembers and lifts up even those humbled by such condemnation (<a href='B:230 136:23'>Psa 136:23</a>). This is absolute grace; to save even those suffering condemnation for their sins. This was all exactly relevant to the exiles (see on :1).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Time and again, the Biblical contrasts are between the sinners and the humble- as if humility is the epitome of the acceptable. It is the meek who shall inherit the earth (<a href='B:230 37:11'>Psa 37:11</a>). This is how significant humility Isa. God right now puts down one and lifts up another– all of which He will also due at the last day (<a href='B:230 75:7'>Psa 75:7</a>; <a href='B:490 14:10'>Luk 14:10</a> alludes here). The essence of judgment is ongoing now; “we make the answer now”.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sing to Yahweh with thanksgiving, sing praises on the harp to our God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "Begin the song with thanksgiving", clearly an indication that this Psalm was to be sung in the sanctuary. This had only just been rebuilt at the time of this Psalm (see on :1).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As God prepares the earth for the grass and manipulates the clouds above, so the eretz / land / earth was prepared for the restoration to happen (s:w. <a href='B:290 45:18'>Isa 45:18</a>; <a href='B:290 62:7'>Isa 62:7</a>). The tragedy was that the majority of the exiles preferred to stay in Babylon rather than return to the land prepared for them. By contrast, the land / kingdom was prepared for David (<a href='B:230 119:90'>Psa 119:90</a>) whilst he was in exile, and he received it. The sending of the rain represents the power of God's word of restoration coming down and producing growth (<a href='B:290 55:10-11'>Isa 55:10-11</a>). And yet this was precluded by the exiles, and will come true fully at the last day.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He provides food for the livestock, and for the young ravens when they call-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The hint is that if the exiles truly called to God for help, He would respond. The fact He responds to calls for help is encoded throughout creation; for when even the ravens call, God answers their needs. The fact God "provides food" to His people far more than even to "the livestock" means that we should be faithful to covenant with Him (<a href='B:10 28:20'>Gen 28:20</a> s:w:). His provision of food to the natural creation is a reason to praise God for His grace to men (s:w. <a href='B:230 136:25'>Psa 136:25</a>). Constantly, the natural creation is read as an encouragement to faith in God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The raven was considered a bad omen. But still God cares for them; and how much more for His people. This is the force of the Lord's argument in <a href='B:490 12:24'>Luk 12:24</a>, "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them". Clearly God doesn't simplistically punish the evil and bless the righteous immediately in this life. His grace reaches out to all.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He doesn’t delight in the strength of the horse, He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm was in the context of the restoration (see on :1). Perhaps the allusion is how the wicked Haman 'delighted' in the strength of a horse (<a href='B:190 6:9'>Est 6:9</a>; <a href='B:190 6:11'>Est 6:11</a> s:w:). Haman and those like him all came to nothing, and couldn't thwart the glorification of God's captive people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was originally David who hoped in grace (<a href='B:230 33:18'>Psa 33:18</a>). But the exiles are asked to hope in God's grace (<a href='B:230 130:7'>Psa 130:7</a>); for their restoration was by grace, in that their judgment was absolutely called for.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem! Praise your God, Zion!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The situation in the time of Haggai and Zechariah (see on :1) was not apparently worthy of so much praise. But the Psalm asks the exiles to praise God, as David did, for that which was promised and was yet to come.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He has strengthened the bars of your gates, He has blessed your children within you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, this Psalm was relevant to the exiles. Nehemiah's record stresses how the exiles themselves strengthened the bars of the gates of Jerusalem; but it was Yahweh working with them to achieve thIsa. But the blessing of their children was only potentially available; for Haggai (see on :1) records how there was much suffering amongst the exiles from famine and plague, because they had not truly returned to their God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He makes peace in your borders, He fills you with the finest of the wheat-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But at the time of Haggai and Zechariah (see on :1) they experienced famine and opposition from within their borders. The great potentials possible for the exiles who returned didn't come about; their impenitence precluded the reestablishment of the Kingdom as was prophetically possible. "Fills you" translates&nbsp; word often used to describe how God's people in His land would be "filled" or satisfied"; if they were obedient to the covenant (<a href='B:50 6:11'>Deu 6:11</a>; <a href='B:50 8:10'>Deu 8:10</a>; <a href='B:50 8:12'>Deu 8:12</a>; <a href='B:50 11:15'>Deu 11:15</a> and very often).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He sends out His commandment to the earth; His word runs very swiftly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "He sends his oracle to the earth: his word will run swiftly"; as in :19 "He sends his word to Jacob". A word running swiftly was an idiom for the fulfilment of that word (see on <a href='B:420 2:2'>Hab 2:2</a>). See too on <a href='B:300 23:18'>Jer 23:18</a>; <a href='B:300 23:22'>Jer 23:22</a>. The idea was that the word of restoration was now coming true for the exiles (see on :1). But tragically their impenitence precluded it coming true at that time as it might have done.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He gives snow like wool, and scatters frost like ashes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that God turns the water into snow, and then His word melts the snow, and the waters flow. The water changes from one state to another. The idea is that Judah went into captivity by God's word, they were as it were frozen in captivity, but God's word would melt them and change their state, so that they would flow again, back to Zion. But most of them preferred to remain frozen in captivity.</p>


